Here is another name I recognized -- Lenore Tawney. This piece is "Box of Falling Stars," made in 1984 of cotton canvas, linen thread, acrylic paint, and ink. It is approx. 108 × 68 × 70 in. (274.3 × 172.7 × 177.8 cm). Big, yet tenuous. I think this and Echelman's "1.8" were the two biggest pieces in the Renwick on July 22. Both of them are seriously about air and open space, as well as about thread...............
It's hard to tell from this image, but this is groups of linen threads hanging down, filling up a rectangular prism of space. I would have said the blue (kind of in the middle) was more thread (much shorter pieces) tied on the original thread, but I wouldn't swear to it. I wish I'd taken a closeup of the blue areas, in the middle.....
I think this next angle gives a much better idea of the groups of thread, and of way the whole piece defines volume. (And look at the floor! So beautiful! The metal strips are to remind us not to step too close to the pieces. Once one understands that, one may begin to pay attention to the strips, but I had to be told, after ignoring the slight rise of the metal under my foot when I leaned in to look at another piece....)
Here's a closer look at the threads. Remember I told you, when we were looking at the glass-and-wood spinning wheel, that the fiber on its bobbin was animal fiber? Spun flax fibers are called linen. Here's the result of spinning flax -- a very NOT hairy, fairly stiff thread. Linen thread can become very soft and smooth over time, but when it begins as a thick-ish thead, and hasn't been washed dozens of times, it is likely to be pretty stiff.
More politics, alas. I wouldn't show it to you if I didn't like the way it looks...............
Looks hand-sewn to me.
This piece was made by Anna Von Mertens in 2006.
Here's another name I recognize from ceramics. Toshiko Takaezu. Love the fingermarks, love the colors (especially the piece at right). "Closed Forms" 1980s or 1990s, they don't seem to know which.
"Shoal (Bone Shoal Sonance)" Made of limba and shibua (whatever they may be), in 2003 by John Grade. This is quite 3D, and casts an interesting shadow.
This is called "Cut, Flamed, Spalted." Presumably "cut" out of the wood. The "flames" are the marks in the original wood we can see across the wrist. The "spalted" refers to the black lines on the bicep. (I think it should be called "Flamed, Spalted, Cut" in chronological order.....)
I think the arm is beautiful, which is why I took the pic. I didn't pay too much attention to the rest of it, though it seemed to me there were (carved wooden) links from the arm to the rest of the wood on the table. I wonder now if those other two pieces didn't contain the wood that is now the arm.... This is another piece I'd take more time with, if I went back to the Renwick when it was still on display.
Admiring the sparkly Villareal over the stairs, and enjoying the color of the Eschelman in that enormous room at the back of the building.
This is the railing around the stairs. The building itself is beautiful............
Another excellent gate. This one is "Portal Gates" by Albert Paley. Made in 1974 of steel, brass, copper and bronze.
Detail.
Another amazing piece. This is glass, in the shape of a light-weight drape-y dress worn by a reclining maiden. Only there's no maiden. Just dress. "Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery" Made in 2009 by Karen LaMonte.
In this next images, we are looking at the front of the dress. The maiden would be on her right side, if she were there, propped up on her right elbow. We can see the parts of the dress that would go over her shoulders, in the upper left corner. At left, below the right shoulder of the dress, is a round hole in the shadow of the dress -- her right elbow would be resting in about the middle of that round of light. I wonder how this was made.............
An amazing fact from this trip to the Renwick -- I was able to remember to capture the explanatory information about almost every piece I photographed. This is definitely some kind of record, and I'm pleased to have collected all of that info!!!
By this point in our photographic traversal of my day, we have been through all the rooms that were open, twice, and I'm getting hungry. I go down to check out the gift shop, which, I recalled from olden times, has some excellent things for sale.
Wow. Some *seriously* excellent things for sale! Clutch purses made from very fine metal mesh, so you can see the moire effect where the pieces of mesh overlap. One clutch had a peacock feather sandwiched between the layers of mesh. And look at the purse barely visible above the one with the feather -- I think that is strips of mesh made of different kinds of metal, which have been abused in various ways (resulting in different patterns on the metal). Wow.
I do not carry anything like this (my pants have pockets, and I use them) but aren't these cool? Seems like there is lots of scope for using overlapping mesh in all kinds of different ways..............
Here is something else that suggests all sorts of possibilities. This is a necklace, made of some sort of stiff strips (leather, I bet), threaded around and between beads.
Here's a closer look at the beads. Think what you could do with strips of fused fabric. Or strips of paper fused to fabric.... And color............................. Wow.
Wow, again. I would hang this on the wall, nevermind wear it................ Pleated and dyed. Silk, I bet.
Lots of food for thought in the gift shop, as well as in the galleries!
AND they have an enticing collection of books for sale. Once upon a time, I used to buy books and then fly home with them, but that was 40 years ago.
I took pics of the covers of books, and came home and reserved books at the library. Or ... libraries ...... Seeing as my library prefers to spend book-purchase money on foreign-language novels and comic-book-style fiction, rather than art books.................
Luckily other libraries in the state are still spending money on non-fiction in English!
Don't these books look interesting?
Happy sigh. If I lived in Washington, I would totally visit the Renwick all the time. What a fabulous collection. What a lot of gorgeous things, made by a diverse variety of people! Excellent, excellent, excellent.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment