By Sherry Chen, Curatorial/Digitization Intern
The Heckscher Museum has long been a champion of fiber art, with work by Jack Lenor Larsen, Miriam Shapiro and other artists long in the permanent collection, and more featured in the recent The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024.
Fiber art encompasses any fine art primarily made of natural or synthetic fibers, textiles, and/or yarn. Artists may use a wide variety of techniques, including but not limited to sewing, weaving, quilting, crocheting, and macramé in their works. While often not as commonly seen in museums as paintings or sculptures, fiber art is an art form that has a long-standing history and is an integral part of the fine art world.
1970s
The Heckscher highlighted the value of fiber-based art in the 1970s. In November 1971, The Heckscher displayed fabric designer Jack Lenor
Larsen’s Irish-inspired woven fabrics in the exhibition Two Master Craftsmen. Larsen was an internationally renowned and innovative textile designer and weaver. Among his many accomplishments, he produced the first printed velvet upholstery and developed sun-resistant silk fabrics.(1) Larsen was known for his hand-woven fabrics of natural yarns, and he studied with artisans all over the world to learn local weaving techniques and patterns. His travels often become sources of inspiration, so it’s no surprise to see the inspiration of Irish culture on display at The Heckscher.
Less than two years later, in August and September of 1973, the Heckscher had its first major craft-based show called Contemporary Craftsmen. The exhibition received positive news coverage from the LI Press and Newsday, with articles calling for readers not to overlook the exhibit. Artist Veronica Gigante Abbott, who has work in the Heckscher collection, used the properties of fibers as a means of artistic expression. “Texture is the statement,” she said about her work. “The viewer is able to travel into the soul of the work and become involved with organic forms.” (2) Her use of texture and fibers to engage the viewer is an idea that still resonates with many fiber artists today.
Today
There is still much craft-based art to be found at the Heckscher. Notably, The Heckscher holds three pieces by the artist Miriam Schapiro, who is known for challenging the division between “fine art” versus “craft.” In the exhibition The Rains are Changing Fast: New Acquisitions in Context, which was on view earlier this year, The Heckscher displayed Schapiro’s collage, The Measured Heart. Schapiro’s decision to 
collage fabric on paper with acrylic is very purposefully chosen. Her use of sewing—a task traditionally seen as a woman’s craft— prompts the audience to re-evaluate the scope of what they believe fine art to be, and to analyze fiber art with great consideration to its own history and complexity.
The Heckscher has and will continue to show fiber arts by engaging with contemporary fiber artists. Two standout fiber artworks can be seen in The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024.
Meticulously crafted, Jessica Penagos’ Rio birth reclaims what is traditionally women’s work and brings it to the fine art world, similar to Schapiro’s The Measured Heart. Penagos’ art asks the viewer to consider the subject and medium of cotton and wool thread with regard to femininity, labor, and identity. Ruth Douzinas’ Star Store is made up of a silk screen kitchen rag repaired with thread. Douzinas’ use of thread becomes representative of (and becomes an homage to) the durability of the rag.
Douzinas, Penagos, and Schapiro all make fiber art with extreme intentionality. The values of fiber art are the weight, power, history, and significance that the medium holds, which each artist utilizes brilliantly. Rio birth and Star Store are on display at the Heckscher’s The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024, which runs from now until January 19, 2025.
Sherry Chen is a Gardiner Young Scholar, through The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation’s grant to The Heckscher Museum of Art. She is an Art Studio & Computer Science double major at Mount Holyoke College.
Notes:
- Stephanie Zollinger, “In Memoriam: Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020),” University of Minnesota College of Design, January 21, 2021, https://design.umn.edu/news/memoriam-jack-lenor-larsen-1927-2020.
- “Creative Stitchery At Gallery North,” COMMERCIAL REVIEW, September 3, 1970.
