The 33 artworks in the Renwick Gallery’s “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women” span nearly a century in American textile art.
Cynthia Schira, "Reflections," 1982, woven and bound resist-dyed cotton and dyed rayon. The 33 artworks in the Renwick Gallery’s “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women” are not quite so rebellious as the show’s title suggests. But they do challenge customary assumptions about textile crafts: Nearly all are defiantly nonfunctional. They’re fiber for art’s sake.
The objects roughly divide between pictures and sculptures, and the latter are usually more striking. Often suspended in air, many of the sculptural works have a near-liquid quality that evokes clouds, waterfalls and marine life. Further on, two neighboring pieces that appear organic seem to bob as if at sea. Made of the kind of white filament used for fishing line, Kay Sekimachi’s “Nagare VII” is abstract but suggestive of a squid in motion. Neda Al-Hilali’s mixed-fiber “Medusa” is similar in size and shape, yet has a very different vibe. Where “Nagare VII” looks clean and elegant, “Medusa” appears dark and damaged. While the two pieces elicit different responses, each benefits from the other’s presence.
Faith Ringgold is probably the best-known artist in the show. Her “The Bitter Nest, Part II: The Harlem Renaissance Party” centers on a cartoon-style painting of such notables as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. Du Bois around a table. The picture is flanked by patchwork patterns and two columns of handwritten text.
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