Harmony and Polly and Regina, oh my

Grey Scale I by Polly Apfelbaum,
marker on silk/rayon velvet, 60 x 37 inches,  2015

 

Ned and I went to the National Gallery of Canada to view Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction when we were in Ottawa last February.  

Grey Scale detail, marker on silk/rayon velvet, by Polly Apfelbaum, USA

This is the important exhibition that you have probably read about online.  It debuted in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in September 2023, and then travelled first to the National Gallery in Washington DC in the spring of 2024, and then to Canada in late 2024 until the end of February 2025.  The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York in April. (April 20 - September 13 2025. ) 

Syaw (Fishnet) by Regina Pilawuk Wilson,
acrylic paint on canvas, 48 x 79 inches, 2011

Fishnet (detail) by paint on canvas by Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Australia

The exhibition was beautifully installed in our spacious national gallery.    

I was familiar with Regina Pilawuk Wilson's work as I own the catalogue for the Marking the Infinite exhibition.  It was great to see this painting face to face.  I really appreciated understanding with my body that that this painting is as large as one of my quilts.  (48 x 79 inches) 

Pink Weave, by Harmony Hammond, USA
 oil and cold wax medium on canvas, 24 X 24 inches, 1974 

Harmony Hammond   is a recognized artist in a wide variety of materials, and has, through out her 50 year career,  privileged textiles in her work.   I find it interesting that of all her work, the curators chose these two oil/wax paintings to represent her contribution to abstract art.  

Grey Grid, by Harmony Hammond, USA
oil and cold wax medium on canvas, 20.5 x 20.5 inches, 1974 

These two paintings by Harmony Hammond along with the velvet piece, Grey Scale I, by Polly Apfelbaum, (who is no slouch in the art world either, btw,) expand the thinking of those of us who unconsciously put art into categories.  Why? I wonder.  Polly Appelbaum's audacious idea to use permanent marker on sensuous silk rayon velvet gives me such pleasure.  (see top photo of this post)    

Untitled #8 by Agnes Martin,
india ink, graphite and gesso on canvas, 72 x 72 inches, 1977 

Untitled #8 by Agnes Martin, A Canadian who worked in the USA for most of her career.

It's rare to see an Agnes Martin piece in real life.  

I love that her pencil drawing is so much larger than the Harmony Hammond cold wax pieces.  That's one of the main reasons I like to go to art galleries.  The scale and the texture of the work can only be understood when you stand face to face with it. 

(By the way, the above artwork is not included in the beautiful catalogue, although two other Agnes Martin pieces are.  This makes me wonder if each installation of the exhibition is slightly different.)  

Floor Pieces II, III, and VI by Harmony Hammond,
acrylic on fabric, dimensions variable, 1973

Floorpiece by Harmony Hammond, paint on linen that has been braided  USA

I looked carefully at these floor pieces to see what had been painted and what had not been painted.  

In this post, I am showing some of the artists who created work that highlights the idea of domestic textile methods, (woven cloth, braided rug, pieced quilt) with fine art techniques (painting, drawing).

I plan to write another post about this exhibition.  If you are near New York City this summer, I hope that you will visit the MOMA and walk through this beautiful exhibition.    

Joyce Wieland

Balling  1961  oil on canvas by Joyce Wieland

I visited the National Gallery of Canada a few weeks ago.  I looked around for my favourite artist, Joyce Wieland and found four of her pieces in a quiet area and photographed them for this post.  The National Gallery of Canada has a large collection of Wieland's work in their permanent collection.  (listed here).  In 1987 Wieland had a retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario and art critic Geoffrey James covered it for Maclean's magazine.  His article as well as Johanne Sloan's most excellent online book about Joyce Wieland are sources for this post.    

Joyce Wieland was born in 1930 in Toronto.  Her parents died before Joyce turned 9.  She went to Toronto Central Technical school to study dress making, but the art teacher, Doris McCarthy, encouraged her to switch to art.  Wieland became a commercial artist for four years and designed packaging and animated films.  In 1956, age 26, she met and married artist Michael Snow.  The couple went to New York in in the early 60's and returned home in 1971.  The painting at the top of this post is from that time in her life, when New York was bursting with abstract expressionism.  Balling is one of Wieland's  Time Machine series of paintings.  Joyce called them 'sex poetry'.  A significant painting from this time is Heart On,  which you can view in this link.  

Joyce Wieland used a wide variety of media.  Film.  Quilts.  Paintings.  Assemblage.  She was what we would call now, a multi-disciplinary artist.  Geoffrey James wrote:  "Hers is not a body of work that offers a clear progression of a single, recognizable style.  Instead, the viewer is confronted by what appears to be sudden, impulsive leaps."

Spring Blues  1960 oil, paper collage, mirror on canvas by Joyce Wieland

Wieland experimented with media.  Spring Blues is an example of how she broke away from the dominant New York art style.  The mirrors are there because she wanted to include the viewer's reflection.  She would be pleased by how the National Gallery is protecting this fragile piece with a plexiglass frame which clearly shows my reflection looking and photographing this bright painting, now a bit damaged from age.  For a better view of this painting, have a look at this article from the Globe and Mail - you will need to scroll down to find Joyce's piece.  

spring blues detail

While many of her art works had to do with male-female relationships, Wieland is also known for art that communicates a great love for Canada.  In 1971, at the age of 41, she was given a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada entitled True Patriot Love, the first ever living female artist to have such a thing, a truly remarkable achievement.  In her National Gallery exhibition, she showcased the work of women who embroidered, knitted,  and made quilts.  A celebration of sisterhood and domestic art a few years before Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974-79).  A photo of a rarely seen  set of knitted flags from this exhibition is here.   The best thing about the True Patriot Love exhibition for me is the catalogue for it, a government publication on Arctic Flora that Wieland altered with photos and sketches.  With this simple subversive act, she highlighted another overlooked domestic art, The Scrapbook.

Confed Spread 1967  plastic and cloth by Joyce Wieland

In 1967, when Wieland still lived in New York she made many pieces about her love for Canada.  Confed Spread, shown above, was first shown in Canada at Expo 67 to celebrate Canada's 100th birthday. 

Cooling Room II  1964  metal toy airplane, cloth, metal wire, plastic boat, paper collage, ceramic cups with lipstick spoon, mounted in painted wooden case by Joyce Wieland 

Also from the 60's are the many boxed and plastic wrapped assemblages, one of which was on display in Ottawa.  They seem like film strips and tell stories.  Planes plummet, sailboats sink, and elements of disaster, travel, love, and time passing are the plot.  Joanne Sloan has written about these and also Joyce's quilts here.  

If you google Joyce Wieland now,  Joyce Wieland Canadian Filmmaker comes up first, because film making was a primary medium for her.  Her work in film culminated in the full length feature film, The Far Shore in 1976, a love story loosely inspired by one of Canada's star artists, Tom Thomson.  The MacLean's article implies that this film, a five year project, took a toll on Wieland and she almost stopped making films, and turned to painting and drawing with coloured pencil in the 80's.  Then in 1990, Wieland was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. 

Cooling Room  II detail by Joyce Wieland.  This sculpture is named for the words printed on the box that Wieland used to make the assemblage.  

When she died at the age of 68 in 1998, women artists across Canada mourned her.

Two biographies came out 3 years later in 2001.  Jane Lind's Joyce Wieland:  Artist on Fire and Iris Nowell's Joyce Wieland:  A Life in Art.

I've written about Joyce Wieland on modernist aesthetic.  I'm a fan.  Her name comes up in eleven different posts on this blog.   Here's one from 2009.   

The National Gallery in Ottawa,  Ontario,  Canada is a beautiful place to visit for humans of all ages.  It has the feeling of a grand, clean, cool palace of culture.  (My companion here is 18 months)  

Magdalena Abakanowicz: Soft Strength at the Tate Modern, London, England

Every Tangle of Thread and Rope, Abakans by Magdalena as installed at Tate Modern until May 21 

magdalena's brown abakan 1969,
 ball point pen sketch on opened note book, 6.5 x 8 inches

magdalena's embryology bundles circa 1980,
ball point pen sketch on opened note book, 6.5 x 8 inches

We visited the Tate Modern last week because I wanted to experience the Magdalena Abakanowicz exhibition.  While there, I borrowed one of those folding portable stools so that I could sit among the Abakans and draw them.  I wore my grey knit dress for these visits, because it had great pockets for my phone and little notebook.  My shoes were comfortable and I wore black tights, just like all the other pilgrims.  

embryology  1978 - 1981, burlap, cotton gauze, hemp rope, nylon, sisal, dimensions variable,
by Magdalena Abakanowicz

embryology, there are approximately 800 pieces in this body of work, 1978-81,
burlap, sisal, cotton gauze, hemp, stockings,  etc

When I sat close to the burlap wrapped bundles of the Embryology grouping, I could differentiate the wrapping materials:  brownish cheesecloth, grey and brown cotton stockings, twine, sisal, but I couldn't always tell what was inside them.  

Magdalena did not self-identify as a feminist yet her work is seen by many as emblematic of a powerful female imagery.  One can't help but think about birth and vulnerability while sitting with her work.  And sex.  And decay.  And nests, and wombs, and eggs.   Her work is about LIFE and its connection to fibres. 

mature woman sketching Magdalena Abakanowicz's Embryology
 at the Tate Modern, London, England

sketch of Magdalena's embryology,
 ball point pen on opened out notebook, 6.5 x 8 inches

By drawing them, I touched them slowly with my eyes.  I was touched by them.  They are hand made monuments to human labour and creativity.  The connection to the body and all its functions is so strong that I am finding it hard to express in words.  It's incredible.  The inspiration I felt when I was near them was deep.  I was pulled by heart strings into her spaces and even now, at home, I remember the experience as something holy. 

It was a privilege be so close to them.  I was in awe the whole time.  

Drawing the soft sculptures helped my mind and body absorb them. 

Sitting rather than standing helped my wobbly legs. 

mature woman in front of
Magdalena Abakanowicz's Abakan Orange 1968
at the Tate Modern exhibition, Every Tangle of Thread and Rope.

There's a new post on modernist aesthetic dedicated to Magdalena Abakanowicz's Abakans.   Click here

Sheila Hicks retrospective in Wakefield, England

grandes boules by Sheila Hicks

textile fresco 1969 in the background 

framed small studies done over 50 years, a rope piece in the background,
  evolving tapestry 1987 in foreground, all by Sheila Hicks

study

study Phare Rude 1978

study   whaler Malgorn 1978 

study Phare Inverti 1977

Pockets 1982 by Sheila Hicks, she stitched together pockets from a medical center in Jerusalem that had been used by patients who were undergoing treatment,
 they could store their belongings in the pockets 

Badagara White 1966 Sheila Hicks

Entrance to the Forest 1972  prayer rug series

grand portal 1974

Ned and I visited Wakefield last August just so that we could see this exhibition by artist, Sheila Hicks.

Images and several write-ups about this show can be accessed through this link to the gallery.

It was wonderful to see room after room of her experimental approach to textiles.  These kinds of exhibitions do not come to where I live in Northern Ontario.  I have to make pilgrimages to them.

My next pilgrimage is to see Magdalena Abakanowicz's exhibition of Abakans at the Tate Modern.  I'll post a photo once I'm there.  For now, enjoy the courageous approach of Sheila Hicks, an American living in Paris, who keeps working at age 85, and who is not afraid of colour and fun.  

How long does it take for moonlight to reach us? Just over one second. And sunlight? Eight minutes.

How Long Does It Take Moonlight to Reach us?  Just over one second.  And Sunlight?  Eight Minutes  by Harja Waheed, 2019, Sunned Paper (detail)

In November 2019, I visited a real (not virtual) art gallery and experienced (in real life, moving through and looking at) the exhibition  Hold Everything Dear by Harja Waheed.  It was at the Power Plant in Toronto and I went with daughter April and now, over a year later, I am reflecting on that experience. 

The artist showed a variety of media: ceramics, textiles, installation, video, and works on paper.  

How Long Does It Take Moonlight to Reach us?  Just over one Second.  And Sunlight?  Eight minutes by Hajra Waheed 2019  sunned paper

Her use of sunned paper started when she was in art school.  Unable to afford traditional art papers, she scrounged the display papers that stationary shops had in their windows.  The shops eventually saved paper for her, as they couldn't sell it.  She still visits shops and bookstores when she travels and collects 'sunned' paper.  

A River Runs Through It, Hajra Waheed, 2019  cyanotype on a bolt of linen

We are living in a time where it is becoming difficult  to identify fact from fiction.  

"allowing objects to speak for themselves, allowing histories to infuse one another and viewers to steep in the mystery of interconnected clues, creating just enough tenuousness or uncertainty in order to leave space for viewers to come to the work from their own perspective and histories - these all remain urgent bottom lines for me, allowing for possibility, imagining and reimagining." Hajra Waheed

Studies for a Starry Night by Hajra Waheed  glazed porcelain and stoneware, 2019

One body of work in the exhibition are fragments of starry sky-scapes displayed on shallow shelves.  The words in the title, Starry Night, remind us of the expressionism and wonder we associate with Van Gogh.  

"I am interested in the space of not knowing.  We are so used to going to an exhibition and having a set beginning and end, where every gesture has been clarified and every mark has been noted.  But that is not as important to me as an affective experience."  Hajra Waheed

detail of Studies for a Starry Night 2019

"I see my practice as a slowly unfurling process, a chronicle or story that reveals itself over the course of a lifetime rather than within the space of one exhibition. Each body of work is borderless, porous, temporally unbound,  not limited with some discernible end-point."  Hajra Waheed

Letters 1-8  by Hajra Waheed, ink on paper, 2019

The artworks in the set of work entitled Letters 1-8 were inspired by John Berger's novel that uses the device of love letters entitled  from A to X .  Waheed's series of letters combine careful drawings of palm leaves and personal notes.  

Letters detail Hajra Waheed ink on paper 2019

I felt Hajra Waheed's poetic sensibility as I moved through the several rooms containing the exhibition.  The title,  Hold Everything Dear, is borrowed from the British art critic and novelist John Berger's 2007 book of essays.  Other key texts that inspire the artist are: Rebecca Solnit's book of essays Hope in the Dark and the non-fiction of Arundhati Roy. 

The exhibition is quite political yet I was able to understand it on a personal and emotional level. 

Forget What They Tell You

There is hope in the room.  Moving slowly along side the many different items we feel an invisible web-like connection.  The guest curator, Nabila Abdel Nabi explains that that the artist considers all her work as if it is in a spiral.  A spiral that is felt, not seen.  

forget what they tell you, this longing for you is deeper than any blue 

 

The spiral is more than just a form, it can denote evolution and involution, it expands and contracts, it reveals and it hides, it does not settle or occupy, it does not want you to believe it is invulnerable, it is a study, not an art, it is smoke entering the air, it is our umbilical cord, it is the form found in heart cells, it is the form found in nerve cells, it is never redundant, it is the act o remembering, it is a compass that allows us to stand in the center of a storm, it is the belief that what we do matters, it represents the awareness of the self,  it is about keeping an open heart in the face of a broken one.  

(only some of the text read by the artist at this link. )

Hold Everything Dear  by Hajra Waheed, The Power Plant Toronto 2019

 

There is enough space in the exhibition to allow us to make our own connections.

mississippi valley textile museum

I went to Ottawa in the middle of June to visit Grace and April joined us from Toronto.
On the Saturday morning, we drove over to Almonte to see Tania Love's exhibition on its final day.

Besides Tania's beautiful mixed fibre pieces, I wanted to re-visit the interesting and challenging gallery space at the mississippi valley textile museum.

The Rosamond gallery is on the main floor of what used to be a textile mill.  The thick walls and original windows have an authentic presence.

I'm extra interested because Penny Berens and I will be opening our own two person show in this gallery space in 2021 and I felt a need to walk through it.   I love this gallery space and have visited several times, one of those is described here.

Tania's work is hung from the ceiling and we moved among the vertical shapes.  There was an amazing communication between the kozo paper hangings and the spirit of this place.

 Lots of space for Penny and I.

Pathways: pigment on mixed fibre 2019  Tanya Love

The curator installs every exhibition with great respect.  In this case, these lightweight paper hangings that remind us of water tumble from the ceiling in variety of placements.  They evoke the river that runs through Almonte, and the waterfall in the center of town.  This exhibition honours water, our precious natural resource.

 Even the floor inspires me.

pathways 2019  pigment on mixed fibre  2019   Tania Love

On July 13, Those of Us Still Living,  an exhibition of repurposed denim by Jim Arendt opens at the MVTM.   Jim won the first place award at Fiberart International last month.