The digitalization of the world seems to require manual compensation. Everywhere, people are crocheting, embroidering, knitting, and weaving. The boundary between arts and crafts appears to be blurring. As early as 1878, Gottfried Semper referred to textiles as the original art form. The Wiener Werkstätte and the Bauhaus broke through the barriers—a decisive impulse for the masters of modernism. Thread, weave, network, and pattern are simultaneously foundation, result, and inspiration and spill over into the areas painting, sculpture, installation, and media art.

This opulently designed volume presents both an artistic and an intercultural dialogue, comparing works by Gustav Klimt, Edgar Degas, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse, Chiharu Shiota, and Sergei Jensen to historical textiles from centuries past. Interdisciplinary essays provide extensive discussions of the materials and ideas utilized in work with textiles.

Artists featured (selection):

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Anni Albers, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Edgar Degas, Sonia Delaunay, Lucio Fontana, Mona Hatoum, Eva Hesse, Josef Hoffmann, Sergei Jensen, Mike Kelley, Kimsooja, Paul Klee, Peter Kogler, Piero Manzoni, Agnes Martin, William Morris, Robert Morris, Blinky Palermo, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Chiharu Shiota, Yinka Shonibare, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Dorothea Tanning, Lenore Tawney, Rosemarie Trockel, Édouard Vuillard, Pae White

Exhibition schedule: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, October 12, 2013–March 2, 2014