Textiles Tour of the Tate Modern

Large museums can be totally overwhelming for visitors- they don’t call it “museum fatigue” for nothing.  So often when I visit large museums I like to go in with a particular theme in mind.  On a recent visit to the Tate Modern I decided to check out what textiles they have on display.  The Tate Modern is, of course, an art gallery rather a craft or design museum.  However textiles still play an important role in modern and contemporary art, so I was interested to see how textiles are represented in their permanent exhibitions, and I’ve created a minitour around the works that incorporate textiles.  I’ve excluded the temporary, though it looks as though both Ellen Gallagher and Saloua Raouda Choucair do work with textiles, and I’m looking forward to both of those.

I can’t decide whether textiles are noticeably absent or strikingly present.  In total, I found just 11 works involving textiles across the several hundred on display.  Textile works are present in only two of the four galleries: Poetry and Dream, which centres on the Surrealist movement, and Energy and Process, which focuses loosely on art from the 1960s to ‘80s.  I did find it odd that Structure and Clarity had no textile works on display, given that artists and craftsmen often utilise textiles in their work precisely because of their structural possibilities.

I suppose I could include all works on canvas, but this seems to me to miss the point of what textiles can offer as a medium in their own right.  Nevertheless, one piece does express the dual use of canvas as both a background material and a structural form.  Pinot Gallizio’s Industrial Painting (1958) is in Room 4 of the Poetry and Dream exhibition on the 2^nd floor.  It was created using a quasi-mass production technique of a painting machine, and portions could be sliced off and sold as individual pieces.

Industrial Painting, Pinot Gallizio

 

Poetry and Dream’s emphasis on the Surrealists presents opportunities for display of textile pieces informed by found objects and tactile juxtaposition, and most of these are displayed in Room 2.  The most striking of these is perhaps Box (1963) by Lucas Somaras.  Inspired by Somaras’ childhood in his family’s tailor shop, it contrasts soft wool, rope, and thread with shards of glass.

Box, Lucas Somaras

 

Two of the sculptural works by Man Ray incorporate textiles.  The Lovers (1933) uses a thick coil of rope that the Tate curators interpret as reminiscent of a noose.  This work was created in the aftermath of Ray’s split from Lee Miller.  Elsewhere, L’Enigme d’Isidore Ducasse (1920) is a sewing machine wrapped in cloth.  The use of textile equipment is directly inspired by Surrealist thinker Isidore Ducasse, who wrote under the nom de plume Comte de Lautreamont.  

The Lovers, Man Ray

 

L'Enigme d'Isidore Ducasse, Man Ray

 Cloth wrapping that both obscures details and highlights the solidity and form of the concealed object is a central feature of Man Ray's works above.  It also informs Joseph Beuys’ Campaign Bed (1982) next door in Room 8.  Felt blankets are a theme across Beuys' work, said to be inspired by their aid in his survival during an incident when his plane was shot down during the Second World War.

Campaign Bed, Joseph Beuys

The final two works on this floor, both in Room 2, are psychosexual sculptural pieces that use velvet and animalistic shapes to convey desire.  Cathy de Monchaux’s Erase (1989) combines velvet, denim and metal in a work that hints at fetishism.  Meanwhile Dorothea Tanning’s Pincushion (1965) is even more overtly fetishistic, despite simultaneously looking like an adorable baby elephant.  In both these works textiles are used to symbolise the concealment of hidden urges, as well as to lend the pieces tactile interest.

Pincushion, Dorothea Tanning

Erase, Cathy de Monchaux

Several works in Energy and Process, on the 4^th floor, incorporate textiles; this exhibition is heavily weighted towards craftsmanship and sculptural works, so this is unsurprising.  Perhaps the most striking is Pino Pascali’s 1968 work, Trap in Room 6.  Made from braided steel wool, the work takes the form of a primitive trap normally made from vines or rope.  It is given its own room which serves to emphasise the scale of the work.

Trap, Pino Pascali

 

Other works in this section include the monumental Untitled (2008) by Robert Morris and Direction (1976-8) by Giovanni Anselmo, both in Room 3.  Morris works with industrial felt cut in strips and hung from a height to allow the textiles to create delicate flowing tendrils that contrast with the thick coarse material.  It is a vibrant and playful work, far more so than most of the other textile works on display, and my personal favourite across this tour.  

Untitled, Robert Morris

Meanwhile Anselmo’s work is inspired by compass points; the apex of the white drapery on the floor points towards geographic north.  This again uses textile as a sculptural medium, and particularly highlights an understanding of the unique forms that fabric can take.  The wide spread of the fabric at the ends of the V and its narrowing to a point is possible because of the nature of the material.

Direction, Giovanni Anselmo

   

The other piece that makes pointed use of textiles for their structural capabilities is by Paule Vezalay, whose Lines in Space 34 (1954) uses string pulled taut in different directions within a small frame.  This expression of spatial awareness is an interesting use of the most basic unit of textiles: thread.  Apologies that I could not get a decent image of this one due to glare from the glass, but it is in Room 2 of Energy and Process.

Lines in Space 34, Paule Vezalay

 

The final textile piece is O Penelope (1993) by Leonilson in Room 5.  This is the only example presently on display that specifically embodies subversion of feminine associations with textiles.  This has become one of the most clichéd themes in modern craft, and is based on a spurious history of textiles as a female-only domain, so I am pleasantly surprised that it is not given more attention.

O Penelope, Leonilson

 

The Tate Modern by no means aims to tell all the narratives of modern and contemporary art simultaneously, so it is not a surprise to find that textile works are not a focus at any point.  However the textile works that are incorporated represent an interesting range of uses that textiles have been put to in non-representational art over the past century.  It would be nice to see more textile works in the permanent display, and perhaps more attention paid to the significance of the medium.  However I look forward to returning for the temporary exhibitions mentioned above, both of which seem to feature some interesting contemporary textile work.

The permanent exhibitions at the Tate Modern are free, as protected by the current coalition government agreement.  Donations of £3 are strongly encouraged if you enjoy your visit and are financially able.