Coil Series III – A Celebration

Claire Zeisler, Coil Series III--A Celebration, 1978, natural hemp and wool, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1984.163
Copied Claire Zeisler, Coil Series III--A Celebration, 1978, natural hemp and wool, 66 1283 18 in. (169.0211.0 cm.) diam., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1984.163

Artwork Details

Title
Coil Series III – A Celebration
Date
1978
Dimensions
66 1283 18 in. (169.0211.0 cm.) diam.
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
natural hemp and wool
Classifications
Object Number
1984.163

Artwork Description

I wanted to see how far I could stretch the fiber and still have it say fiber.
--Claire Zeisler

A Celebration is a free standing and free flowing structure that declares fiber art is fine art. The artwork is made from 136 ½ balls of hemp and forty skeins of "jockey red" yarn. Using off-loom knotting and wrapping techniques, it took 597 hours for Claire Zeisler and her assistants to meticulously wrap the threads around galvanized wire. 

Zeisler collected art before she created it. She was particularly enthusiastic about modern paintings by German Bauhaus luminaries from the 1920s and Indigenous American and African masks, baskets, and textiles by unnamed artists. In the 1940s, her artistic practice began at the loom, where she made wall hangings inspired in part by the ancient textiles and baskets in her collection. In the 1960s, she abandoned the loom but not threads. 


Exhibitions

Media - 2019.15 - SAAM-2019.15_1 - 137377
Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women
May 31, 2024January 5, 2025
The artists in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women mastered and subverted the everyday materials of cotton, felt, and wool to create deeply personal artworks.