Modernism You’ll Want to Touch: Woven Histories at the National Gallery of Art
My controversial art world opinion is that an exhibition where the guards constantly have to remind visitors to step away from the art is already a success. Well, as long as the visitors do actually step away. For me, an exhibition like that signals that not only is the art good enough to merit close looking (which, let’s be frank, it isn’t always) but also that it is engaging the viewer on a multisensory level. Specifically, it’s engaging the intimate and sensuous desire to touch, with the illicit thrill of knowing that that is the one thing in a museum you’re not allowed to do.
I’ve been to exhibition recently that seemed to engage my (and others) desire to get up close and personal with some artworks. The exhibition name, which keeps sliding off my brain no matter how hard I try to remember it, is Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction at the National Gallery of Art.
The exhibition explores how the history of textile design and the history of abstract “fine art” are not distinct and separate but closely related and intertwined. The exhibition follows this theme through a few key beats: Firstly, that the distinction between “artist” and “textile designer” is blurry, with many receiving similar training and some individuals exploring both roles. This shouldn’t surprise us…
