Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction traces how weaving, embroidery, and fiber work became vital forms of modernist expression—equal in rigor and innovation to painting and sculpture.
Edited by Lynne Cooke, Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Art, the book gathers over fifty artists, from early visionaries such as Anni Albers, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Sonia Delaunay to contemporary makers including Sheila Hicks, Rosemarie Trockel, and Jeffrey Gibson. Across 190 color plates and a series of illuminating essays, Woven Histories restores textiles to their rightful place at the center of modern creativity.
We first encountered the exhibition by chance while en route to see a Whistler portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and were so captivated we sought it out again when it traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
While photographs can’t fully capture the scale and intricacy of the works on display, the book stands beautifully on its own. Cooke’s introduction traces the intertwined history of textiles and abstraction and concludes on a note that feels especially aligned with our own ethos—recognizing how artists and craftspersons past and present have sought, through thread and design, to imagine a better world.
About the Author
Lynne Cooke is Senior Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of London, and her writing has appeared in Burlington Magazine and Artforum.
Details
Hardcover, 292 pages, 190 color plates
9.5” × 11“
Edited by Lynne Cooke
Published by the National Gallery of Art and the University of Chicago Press, 2023
Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction traces how weaving, embroidery, and fiber work became vital forms of modernist expression—equal in rigor and innovation to painting and sculpture.
Edited by Lynne Cooke, Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Art, the book gathers over fifty artists, from early visionaries such as Anni Albers, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Sonia Delaunay to contemporary makers including Sheila Hicks, Rosemarie Trockel, and Jeffrey Gibson. Across 190 color plates and a series of illuminating essays, Woven Histories restores textiles to their rightful place at the center of modern creativity.
We first encountered the exhibition by chance while en route to see a Whistler portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and were so captivated we sought it out again when it traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
While photographs can’t fully capture the scale and intricacy of the works on display, the book stands beautifully on its own. Cooke’s introduction traces the intertwined history of textiles and abstraction and concludes on a note that feels especially aligned with our own ethos—recognizing how artists and craftspersons past and present have sought, through thread and design, to imagine a better world.
About the Author
Lynne Cooke is Senior Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of London, and her writing has appeared in Burlington Magazine and Artforum.
Details
Hardcover, 292 pages, 190 color plates
9.5” × 11“
Edited by Lynne Cooke
Published by the National Gallery of Art and the University of Chicago Press, 2023
