Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
In Poetry and Silence: The Work and Studio of Lenore Tawney installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2019.
Most artists, particularly those with careers spanning five decades, undergo some sort of evolution. Fiber artist Lenore Tawney did more than evolve: She reinvented her own life and along the way, revolutionized the art of weaving. The trajectory of her life and career are on display in “In Poetry and Silence: The Work and Studio of Lenore Tawney,” on view through March 7 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan.
In 1957, Tawney (1907–2007) left a comfortable life in Chicago for a new undertaking as a full-time artist in New York. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Tawney pioneered ideas and techniques that helped redefine the field of fiber art. “In Poetry and Silence” shows the progression of her work, from utilitarian scarves and traditional woven wall hangings to free-form works that contain merely a hint of the loom. Artists today follow her lead, abandoning the loom’s strict structure to expand their own practices.
“In Poetry and Silence,” one of the largest Tawney retrospectives, showcases more than 120 pieces of her art work. The exhibition also includes an evocation of her New York studio, a space Tawney filled with things that enabled her creativity: Works by esteemed friends (Agnes Martin, Robert Indiana, Toshiko Takaezu); objects Tawney acquired while traveling, and hundreds of found objects, some of which would find their way into her weavings and assemblages.
Among the featured works is Tawney’s Lost and Proud (1957). This unconventionally woven tapestry is dominated by the visibility of the warp throughout the entire piece and by the nonhorizontal weft. In conventional weaving, the vertical warp is completely covered by the horizontal weft. Tawney’s alternative approach “allowed the artist to attain a remarkably close relationship between drawing and weaving,” said Florica Zaharia, former conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a contributor to the exhibition catalogue.
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While Lost and Proud exemplifies Tawney’s reinterpretation of tapestry, her exploration of the woven form—a sculptural approach to weaving—is well represented in works on view. The Bride (1962) comprises various weaving techniques within a tall, narrow form. “The combination of multiple weaving structures in one piece was not a new technique, but correlating this with the width variation throughout the weaving is Tawney’s invention,” writes Zaharia.
“I left Chicago to seek a barer life, closer to reality, without all the things that clutter and fill our lives,” Tawney wrote in her journal. “The truest thing in my life was my work. I wanted my life to be as true.” As In shown by “In Poetry and Silence,” Tawney found what she was looking for. For more information on the exhibition, visit jmkac.org.
