Warp and Weft, Chain Stitch and Pearl: Textiles in the Ahmanson Collection, which opened to the public on August 14 at 5 pm, featured thirty works of fiber art that demonstrate the continuity between the past and present, function, and form of the fiber art medium. These works reflect Roberta Green Ahmanson’s ongoing journey of studying and collecting textiles and offer a glimpse of her diverse and rigorous art collection that includes twentieth-century British art informed by Biblical themes, Old Master paintings and sculpture, ceramic objects, folk art, international photography, and contemporary installation and painting.

Green Ahmanson’s vision as a collector is in sync with the contemporary approach that frames textile-based work as a versatile artistic medium, confidently situated in an active discourse with painting and sculpture. The established divisions between craft and fine art, low and high art, are now porous membranes that allow artists to mine a multiplicity of ideological sources to discover fresh modes of expression. The recent emphasis on social engagement in contemporary art theory has contributed to the erosion of static art categories, including outmoded definitions of fiber art as domestic or “women’s work.” Textiles and fiber art, once viewed as a parallel universe to the mainstream art world and weighed down by the history of gender politics, are altogether liberated from the constraints of their histories.

The seventeen artists displayed in this exhibition explore a wide range of techniques and themes in their work, using the diverse tools of the fiber art tradition that make it such a compelling medium: crochet, knitting, braiding, embroidery, needle point, felting, quilting, and multiple forms of hand and machine weaving, including those that employ digital technologies.

Anni Albers was one of the most influential fiber artists of the twentieth century and a mentor to many of the artists in this exhibition. Her relentless pursuit of order and beauty was rooted in her belief that innovation was a manifestation of transcendence. These themes of life and art pointing to the timeless resonate with Roberta Green Ahmanson, who is ever alert to the presence of the sacred as it manifests itself in human experience. As a steward of these objects and an appreciator of the creative process, she devotes her time and resources to empowering artists to contribute to the greater good.

Featured Artists:

Beverly Ayling-Smith (UK)

Anita Bruce (UK)

Pia Camil (Mexico)

Julia Caprara (UK)

Heather Cook (US)

Catherine Dormor (UK)

Alice Fox (UK)

Channing Hansen (US)

Jackie Hodgson (UK)

Amanda Hu (US)

Robin Kang (US)

Steven and William Ladd (US)

Meg Lipke (US)

Pat Selman (UK)

Phillip Stearns (US)

Kay Swancutt (UK)

Andrea Zittel (US)