Fiber Art: Following the Thread, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution


	Fiber Art : Following the Thread
Created on July 5, 2002	Gloria S. Finn Dale Papers
	Textile designer Gloria S. Finn became interested in rugs in the 1940s when she found a kit for a rug designed by painter Stuart Davis. Fascinated by the technique and its potential, she asked artists to design rugs for her and eventually founded her own company, Gloria Finn, Inc., to sell limited-edition wool rugs handmade under her supervision in Sermoneta, Italy. The artist-designed rugs made by Finn and others were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Grace Borgenicht Gallery, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Pan American Union, and elsewhere. Finn's papers include letters from artists such as Anni Albers, Jimmy Ernst, Richard Lippold, Loren MacIver, Hans Moller, I. Rice Pereira, Gio Ponti, and Theodoros Stamos on the rewards and challenges of translating two-dimensional designs into hand-tufted rugs.
	Photograph of Gloria Finn at Sermoneta Workshop, 1963
	Letter from Randy M [Randall Morgan] to Gloria Finn, April 22, 1954 concerning his design for hooked rugs, 1954.
	Letter from Anni Albers to Gloria Finn, March 15, 1954 concerning her design for hooked rugs, 1954.
	Letter from Randy M [Randall Morgan] to Gloria Finn, November 4, 1953 concerning his design for hooked rugs, 1954.
	Letter from Sydney Butches To Gloria Finn concerning his design for hooked rugs.
	Letter from Easton Pribble to Gloria Finn, April 12, 1953
	Carbon copy of a letter to painter Irene Rice Pereira from Finn, explaining her project to create and promote artist-designed hooked rugs, December 1, 1952.

Go to Top of Page - Exhibition Home