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Fiber
Art
:
Following the Thread |
Created
on
July 5, 2002 |
Claire
Zeisler Papers |
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| Widely
acknowledged as one of the most influential fiber artists of the 20th century,
Claire Zeisler (1903–1991) expanded the expressive qualities of knotted
and braided threads. She studied with Alexander Archipenko and László
Moholy-Nagy at the Illinois Institute of Technology and with Chicago weaver
Bea Swartchild. In the1950s she created traditional loom weavings, but by
1962 she left the loom to make freestanding fiber sculpture. Her estate
transferred 22 scrapbooks that contain her extensive exhibition and publication
records, and two sets of files: one set holds her weaving instructions and
swatches from the1950s; and the other contains her "workroom files,"
a combination of step-by-step instructions, drawings, installation notes,
and snapshots that document her creative process from about 1967 to 1991. |
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| Letter
from fiber artist Joan Lintault, thanking Ziesler for speaking to her graduate
students at Southern Illinois University, September 9, 1983. |
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| Pencil
sketch and yarn sample, "Red Wrapped and Twisted Stick Samples,"
August 17, 1983. |
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| Zeisler's
notes for installing her piece, Hirise, at the Whitney Museum of American
Art, 1983. |
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