Mariska Karasz, Skeins, ca. 1950, linen, cotton, and wool, 53 1⁄2 x 50 1⁄4 in. (135.9 x 127.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1992.117, © 1952, F. Schumacher and Co.
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Skeins
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1950
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 53 1⁄2 x 50 1⁄4 in. (135.9 x 127.6 cm.)
- Copyright
- © 1952, F. Schumacher and Co.
- Credit Line
- Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
- Mediums Description
- linen, cotton, and wool
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Abstract
- Object Number
- 1992.117
Artwork Description
Embroidery is to sewing what poetry is to prose; here the stitches can be made to sing out as words sing in a poem. -- Mariska Karasz
Throughout her life, Mariska Karasz pushed traditional sewing techniques to extremes, creating new stitches and applying existing ones in unusual ways. She started this wall hanging by wrapping different colored yarns around her fingers "for play." She liked how the loops looked and tacked them down to the fabric, varying their scale and position so they appear to fly out toward the viewer from a point far in the distance.
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery, 2019
Works by this artist (1036 items)
Exhibitions
November 13, 2015–March 6, 2022
Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.