On September 7, 2024, Line & Thread: Prints and Textiles from the 1600s to the Present will open its doors to the public. The exhibition is the first to showcase works by contemporary visual artists that operate at the cross-section of prints and textiles, and includes a selection of historical works that similarly highlight the marriage between the two mediums.
“Prints share a long and complicated history with textiles. But for too long, this relationship has been overlooked and underappreciated. Line & Thread finally focuses our attention on prints and textiles through a dazzling array of artworks that stretch from the 1600s to the present day,” Madeleine Viljoen, Curator of Prints and the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library said. “From prints on fabric, ‘dressed’ prints, prints created for the textile industry, and prints that resemble textiles, the exhibition illuminates the ongoing engagement between the two mediums. We can’t wait for visitors to the Library to explore this deep-seated interrelationship and marvel at the diverse works on display.”
Highlights of the exhibition include:
- Works by groundbreaking artists including The Laws of Nature (2006) by Louise Bourgeois, Given (1994) by Kiki Smith, a stitched and embroidered book (2023) by Sonia Gomes, and Remember Me (2006) by Loretta Pettway;
- An elaborate double portrait of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on silk, a large swath of 18th-century calico cloth with an allegorical portrait of George Washington, and examples of dressed prints from Germany and Spain, and other rarely seen historical works;
- A dress inspired by the eighteenth-century friendship album of Anne Wagner, and a contemporary print by Derrick Adams inspired by the dress patterns and fabrics of well-known designer Patrick Kelly; and
- Works imprinted on fabric, including Redbone Blues (2017) by Alison Saar and Transcending Grid, Black (2021) by Analia Saban.
Work with fabrics and cloth has long been relegated to the realm of “craft” or “decoration” and perceived as the province of women and other minorities. Line & Thread traces the work of twentieth-century artists who embraced the textile qualities of prints, examining how aspects of their practice have been silenced and ultimately presenting a path for the use of prints and textiles in favor of experimentation and greater inclusivity. The exhibition invites a reexamination of the place of prints and textiles in our understanding of art, and presents artworks that use the mediums as sites of resistance, critique, and expressions of self.
“Line & Thread spans the very origins of printmaking on cloth to its importance among some of the leading global artists of today,” Clare Bell, Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Associate Director for Art, Prints, and Photographs at the New York Public Library said. “The exhibition represents the Library’s ongoing commitment to promote fresh scholarship that blends the past with the present, and showcases the unique and extraordinary offerings of visual art held at the Library.”
Line & Thread is on view in the Library’s Rayner Wing from September 7, 2024– January 12, 2025. It features over 50 works that are drawn predominantly from prints held in the Library’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs.
