Engaging with both the materiality and visuality of the embroidered artworks by Marguerite Zorach and Elaine Reichek, this thesis analyzes the material acknowledgement, or lack thereof, of the embroidery medium in both the artists' own motivations and how the Museum of Modern Art represents and displays modern embroideries. Often perceived as old-fashioned, in both cultural and artistic frameworks there is at a times tremulous acceptance of the embroidery medium. Both Zorach and Reichek's embroideries are undoubtedly rooted in modernist ideas surrounding form, subject, and aesthetics. Expressed in thread, the concepts behind these artworks are closely stitched to the medium itself, enhanced by the textural and methodological process of embroidery. Despite this, the modes of display used by the MoMA exhibits portray a reluctance to fully embrace and acknowledge the importance of materiality in in the history of embroidery. Examining the inclusion of Zorach's The Circus in the 1938 Three Centuries of American Art exhibition alongside Reichek's 1999 solo exhibition Projects 67: Elaine Reichek displaying her When This You See… embroidery series, this thesis evaluates each artist's use of the medium and how the respective exhibitions framed the embroidered artworks. / Master of Arts / Embroidery, often perceived as a domestic or craft practice, faces cultural and artistic reception challenges when being used as a medium for modern art. Using Marguerite Zorach and Elaine Reichek's embroidered modern artworks, this thesis analyzes how the artists' motivations are translated through the Museum of Modern Art's curatorial and conceptual framework. For these two artists, the materiality, physical processes, and cultural history of the embroidery medium provide grounding contexts for their individual artistic production. This emphasizes that artistic motivation for the use of embroidery is inherently tied to the physical and contextual qualities of the medium, rather than being a simply coincidental choice of medium. Despite this, the MoMA, while not wholly ignoring the material qualities of embroidery and the intimate connection between artist, materiality, and process, does not fully acknowledge and exhibit these closely stitched connections. Analyzing how the MoMA displayed Zorach's The Circus in the 1938 and Reichek's When This You See… embroidery series in 1999, this thesis delves into the cultural forces informing the MoMA's exhibition framing of embroidery alongside how each artist's use of the medium.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119015 |
| Date | 17 May 2024 |
| Creators | Atallah, Grace Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Material Culture and Public Humanities, Ronan, Anne Elizabeth, Moseley Christian, Michelle Yvonne, Smith-Glaviana, Dina C. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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