Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
Ephemeral and Eternal: The Archive of Lenore Tawney installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2019.
“Ephemeral & eternal.”
These words appear on a list of evocative phrases Lenore Tawney carefully compiled in her journal. It’s easy to imagine the artist seated at a desk, committing her thoughts (and the thoughts of others) to paper, rendering the ephemeral into the eternal.
Lenore Tawney (1907–2007) was an American artist known for her groundbreaking work in fiber as well as for her drawings, collages, and assemblages. Her innovative interpretations of traditional practices were central to shifting the perception of weaving from simply a utilitarian craft to the multifaceted field of fiber art as we know it today.
The correspondence, journals, artist books, sketches, and photographs featured in the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s exhibition Ephemeral and Eternal are drawn from collections at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art and the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation. They chronicle the evolution of her artistic practice and map the contours of her everyday life and intimate friendships.
The journals and mail art on view detail the ways she distilled the recurring motifs seen in her artworks, including her use of text, flora, and fauna. Tawney intertwined language with found images, feathers, flowers, and stones into assemblages for her cherished friends.
One sketchbook page reveals Tawney’s profound interest in the physical and metaphorical qualities of water. In a spiraling statement, she wrote, “Water is still like a mirror…mind being in repose becomes the mirror of the universe.” In another sketchbook, she contemplated the sound and sights of the Pacific Ocean, then translated those impressions into drawn lines and gathered threads.
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Tawney often turned her meditative focus to the tiny stones found at beaches and riverbeds. She collected and crafted these treasures into mail-art collages for cherished friends. Several of these enigmatic works are on view. In an interview, she explained, “the postcards came from wishing to communicate with friends, but not knowing what to say—you don’t want to say anything but you want to be a friend. … There was a message, but it was invisible.”
Because of the intimate nature of Tawney’s papers, they reveal her complex — and at times contradictory — identities as an artist, friend, woman, reader, wife, manager, thinker, collector, gatherer, weaver, sculptor, traveler, and seeker.
Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Lenore Tawney, resist-dyed dress; n.d.; silk; 49 1/4 x 32 1/2 in. Collection of the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York.
“Ephemeral and Eternal” is on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan through March 1, 2020. It is one of four exhibitions in the series “Lenore Tawney: Mirror of the Universe,” which includes works by Tawney and by contemporary artists influenced by her legacy. Admission to the Arts Center is free. For more information, visit jmkac.org.