Tag: Jane Sauer

Acclaim! Catalog

Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists cover

In conjunction with our spring exhibition, Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, we produced our 56th catalog. The 164-page volume features images of art by each of the 51 artists in the exhibition. It also includes detail shots and installation images of the works in space. 

Olga de Amaral spread

The 51 artists in Acclaim! like the others that we work with at browngrotta arts, have had their work acquired by museums and recognized by collectors. In addition, each of the artists included have achieved formal art acknowledgment in the form of an award or medal or exclusive membership. In the US, that may mean the award of a Gold Medal from the American Craft Council — 10 of the artists in Acclaim! belong to that group. In Canada, it means membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, which three of our artists have achieved. The late-master weaver Peter Collingwood received an OBE, Order of the British Empire.Yeonsoon Chang of Korea was selected Artist of the Year, by the Contemporary Art Museum in Seoul. In France, Simone Pheulpin was awarded the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris. Grethe Sørensen of Denmark and Agneta Hobin of Finland received the Nordic Award in Textiles; Sheila Hicks the French Legion of Honor, and so on.

Helena Hernmarck Spread

The catalog also includes an essay by Caroline Kipp, Acclaim! and the Art of Serious Play. Kipp (she/they) is a curator, artist, and historian. She holds a BFA in Fibers from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, an ALM in Museum Studies from Harvard University, and is currently a PhD student in Art History at the University of Maryland, College Park.From 2019 to 2023, Kipp was the Curator of Contemporary Art at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, DC where she curated Anne Lindberg: what color is divine light?. Previously, she was the Curatorial Associate in the Department of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she was responsible for the contemporary decorative arts collection, including the Daphne Farago collection. She curated the Farago gallery rotations, Jack Bush: Radiant AbstractionCommunity Arts Initiative: Mindful Mandalas, and Community Arts Initiative: Endless Feast, co-curated Beyond the Loom: Fiber as Sculpture/Subversive Threads as part of Women Take the Floor and Perception is the Medium. Kipp served as the assistant and project manager on Cecilia Vicuna: Disappeared QuipuSheila HicksNan GoldinLorraine O’Grady: Family GainedCandice Breitz: Love StoryMaia Lynch: In Between, and Monuments to Us. Prior to this, Kipp was part of the MFA Boston’s Textile and Fashion Arts Department where she contributed research to the exhibition Gender Bending Fashion. She serves on the boards of the Textile Society of America (TSA) and the James Renwick Alliance for Craft (JRA). You can find her on Instagram at  @carolinekipp_curator.

Jane Sauer Spread
portrait by Photo: Eric Lee
Caroline Kipp. photo: Eric Lee

In the “very insightful and thoughtful” essay, Kipp writes about the importance of community, identifying fiber departments and exhibitions like the Lausanne Biennials, where artists interacted with peers from around the world. Kipp also writes about motivation, noting that these artists continued their work even without recognition, leading to “a contradictory point about accolades and honors: they represent high points within a career and simultaneously are rather anticlimactic.” Kipp observes that “the labor of artmaking is heavier and deeper than most people realize.” These artists have realized that it’s possible to turn a difficult task into a fulfilling one by engaging in the act of “serious play.” In artmaking, serious play is the heart of a sustained studio practice — leaning into uncertainty generates creativity. Kipp finds “playful” qualities in many of the works in claim!, experimental material choices and techniques, and innovative uses of color, form, and imagery. 

Dominic Di Mare Spread

Order a copy of Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, to learn more. One of our readers described it as “an important document much needed now.”


Sneak Peek: Acclaim! Opens Saturday

Colorful Jane Sauer fiber sculpture
15js Genesis, Jane Sauer, waxed linen and pigment, 11″ x 17″ x 8″, 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Here are more images to pique your interest in our Spring “Art in the Barn” exhibition. Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists features more than 40 artists who have created art textiles, fiber sculpture and mixed media work from the 60s to the present. Each has received accolades, recognition, and awards. Among the works that will be included are several very rare and special works from the resale market.

Among these special works are Genesis, a colorful and whimsical work from 2001 by noted artist and gallerist Jane Sauer. The Smithsonian says that Sauer’s pieces “reflect her life as a mother to her children and as a productive, professional artist. [Her] closed baskets symbolize these different roles, evoking the sheltering environment of the womb and the ‘personal space’ that all artists require to create their work.”

Two Cynthia Schira textiles
1csh Nightfall, Cynthia Schira, cotton and linen with fabric backing, 28.5 x 28.5, 1979 and 2csh Spring Lyric, Cynthia Schira, cotton and linen with rod, 27″ x 26″, 1979

Another artist whose work we are excited to be including in Acclaim! is Cynthia Schira. Schira’s work often draws imagery from the notational codes, ciphers, and diagrams that visualize systems of knowledge in different disciplines and professions. The works in Acclaim!, Nightfall and Spring Lyric have that sense; they resemble notes jotted down in haste or using shorthand.

Warren Seelig stainless steel sculptures
5was Small Double Ended, Warren Seelig, nylon, stainless steel, 63″ x 33″ x 16.375; 6was Small White Wheel, Warren Seelig, nylon, stainless steel 62″ x 40″ x 12″, 1996. Photo by Tom Grotta.

New for browngrotta arts are also Warren Seelig’s works of metal and stone. Seelig has family ties to fiber milling and the textile industry and was exposed to both textiles and the textile manufacturing machinery. He received a BS from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, where he created his first woven works, then an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1974. Seelig moved from woven works to unique structural, fan-like works using mylar frames and an innovative double-weave technique. He then shifted to suspended spoke-and-axle pieces and wall-mounted shadow fields, like White Wheel and Small Double Endedand Stone Shadowfield which viewers will see in Acclaim! Seelig has been regularly commissioned to create installations for corporate offices and convention centers. Seelig teaches, curates, and writes on various subjects related to textile, fiber, and material studies. 

Gerhardt Knodel Jacquard weavings
1gkn Santa Cruz, Gerhardt Knodel, cotton twill tape painted and printed before weaving, Mylar, metallic gimp, linen, lined with cotton fabric, 24.75” x 57” x 1.5”, 1981. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Gerhardt Knodel is another artist new for browngrotta arts. Knodel has contributed to the evolution and identity of contemporary work in the fiber medium for more than four decades. For 25 years he led the graduate program in Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art, and subsequently was appointed Director, being awarded Director Emeritus in 2006. Knodel’s work with fiber includes installations, theater, architectural commissions, and the pictorial potential of weaving. In Acclaim! there are three works by Knodel each of which involves intricate patterning and interesting use of metallic threads. Santa Cruz features an image of the boardwalk in California; Jacquard Suite 7 and Jacquard Suite 10 interesting patterning.

29ddm Mourning Station #4, Dominic Di Mare, hawthorn, handmade paper, silk, bone, bird’s egg, feathers, gold and wood beads, 13″ x 7″ x 7″, 1981. Photo by Tom Grotta.

The works by Dominic Di Mare that is included in Acclaim! is particularly intriguing. It includes, The Mourners, a group of woven hangings from the early 60s. It also includes a work from 20 years later, Mourning Station #4, that features the artist’s characteristic assemblage of feathers, handmade paper, beads and woven silk, one of what the Smithsonian calls his, “enigmatic sculptures from handmade papers, polished hawthorne twigs, and feathers.”

Hope you can join us at Acclaim!

Location:
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT 06897

Artist Reception and Opening: 
April 29, from 11am to 6 pm

Remaining Days:
Sunday, April 30th: 11AM to 6 PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Monday, May 1st – Saturday, May 6th: 10AM to 5PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, May 7th: 11AM to 6PM [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)

Protocols: 
Eventbrite reservations strongly encouraged • No narrow heels please (barn floors)

Reserve a spot:
Eventbrite

8ddm The Mourners, Dominic Di Mare, waxed linen, wood, (Back row from left to right: 48.5″ x 24″; 46″ x 24″; 50.5″ x 24″; 47″ x 24″) Front row from left to right: 49.5″ x 24″ ; 46.5″ x 24″; 48.5″ x 24″) 1962-63. Photo by Tom Grotta.