Monday, October 01, 2018

Psychedelic tapestry

We are very fortunate to have the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in this town. I am fortunate that my SO purchased a dual membership so we can go whenever and see whatever, then leave the rest for another day. For example, a week or so ago, we stopped by to view a quilt show. There was also a Chuck Sperry show of psychedelic art, but we didn't spend much time with that. However, my SO returned later and discovered that three of the pieces in the show were tapestry weaving! We went back yesterday so I could check those out.

Tapestry


There were three HUGE tapestries, each about 14' x 7', facing a freestanding wall that made it difficult to photograph them; that's why I shot just one. We spent a fair amount of time up close and personal, to the point a guard seemed to be hovering nearby, poised to keep me from getting too close and personal. I'm not a fan of psychedelic art, but the workmanship was just exquisite. Usually, when we visit museums and art shows, my SO is the expert, but with fiber arts, I get to do the explaining.

When we turned around, we discovered that the tapestries had originally been poster-sized silkscreen prints.

Silkscreen


Fiber artwork simply MUST be seen in person, especially if the pieces are of any size. This one was woven with something sparkly intermingled with some of the wool. I would love to see these works in progress - did they use metallic thread? was there a cartoon behind the work? how do four people work on a tapestry at one time? - just to get a better idea of the process involved.

No comments: