Craft Feature
Crazy Too Quilt by Lia Cook is an example of fiber art in the Renwick Gallery's collection of contemporary American craft.
Created from dyed rayon and acrylic on woven and pressed abaca paper, this piece reflects the harmony between technique and material that is apparent in Cook's work. The physical properties of the fibers give it a luminescence that enhances her intricately woven undulating patterns. Since the late 1980s, she has deliberately employed pictorial imagery of draped fabric in her weaving, hoping to redress the current undervaluation of fabric in our culture and, through the sensory suggestion of touch, emphasize its direct connection with the human spirit.
See more works by Lia Cook in our online exhibition Material Allusions.
Source: Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti. Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).
Pictured: Lia Cook, born 1942, Crazy Too Quilt, 1989, dyed rayon; acrylic on woven and pressed abaca paper, 63 1/4 x 87 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and Bernard and Sherley Koteen and Museum Purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program. © 1989, Lia Cook.
Crazy Too Quilt by Lia Cook is an example of fiber art in the Renwick Gallery's collection of contemporary American craft.
Created from dyed rayon and acrylic on woven and pressed abaca paper, this piece reflects the harmony between technique and material that is apparent in Cook's work. The physical properties of the fibers give it a luminescence that enhances her intricately woven undulating patterns. Since the late 1980s, she has deliberately employed pictorial imagery of draped fabric in her weaving, hoping to redress the current undervaluation of fabric in our culture and, through the sensory suggestion of touch, emphasize its direct connection with the human spirit.