This document provides an overview of fiber art created by women artists. It features photographs and descriptions of works using materials like yarn, fabric, rope, and found objects created by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Sheila Hicks, and Annette Messager. The works address themes like process and repetition, experimentation, domestic functionality, and community. Fiber art allows these artists to explore concepts of the human condition, humor, pain, and relationships through a childlike and direct style that communicates with audiences.

1. Fiber Arts:
Strategies for Presenting,
Interpreting & Sharing
It’s What’s for Dinner
2010
knitted yarn & found object
(old meat grinder)
16 × 16 × 6 in. (dimensions variable)
© Stacey R Chinn

2. Barbara Chase-Riboud
La Musica Red #4, 2003, bronze with red patina and silk
30 x 15 x 32 in. ( 76.2 x 38.1 x 81.3 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Women and Fiber Art

3. Barbara Chase-Riboud
Tantra #4
2007
polished bronze and silk, 78 ½ x 47 ½ x 27 ¾ in.
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

4. Untitled
2003
aluminum and sisal
144 x 52 x 52 in.
© Stacey R Chinn

5. Sheila Hicks
Prayer Wall, 2012
linen
72 x 46 x 6 in.
(182.9 x 116.8 x 15.2 cm)
© Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
Women and Fiber Art
Claire Zeisler
Untitled, 1968
jute with metal and wood base
47 x 63 x 64 in. (dimensions variable)
© Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Lenore Tawney
Dark River Wall Hanging,
1961
linen and wool
164 x 22 ½ in.
(416.6 x 57.2 cm)
Credit Greta Daniel Design Fund
© 2015 Lenore Tawney

6. Untitled
1997
knitted hemp, cast
iron and found
object
© Stacey R Chinn
Untitled
2002
woven industrial
felt, steel and
found objects
© Stacey R Chinn
Untitled
2001
knitted cotton, steel and
found objects (Philippines
wooden pestles)
© Stacey R Chinn
Untitled
1997
forged steel, wood,
cotton, wax and fishnet
© Stacey R Chinn

7. Process and
Repetition

8. Found
Objects

9. Color and Materials

10. Eva Hesse
Vertiginous Detour
1966
acrylic and polyurethane on rope, net, and papier-mâché
diameter of ball: 16 ½ in. (41.9 cm); length of rope:
approx. 154 in. (391 cm)
Experimentation

11. Domestic Functionality
Untitled
2005
steel cable, steel and
wood
© Stacey R Chinn
Untitled
2003
handmade felt, sheet lead
and wire
© Stacey R Chinn
Untitled
1998
steel wire and
graphite on wood
© Stacey R Chinn

12. Up Close and Personal
Bindle (I Have a Fear of Commitment)
2013
ink on bed sheet, tree branch and polyester
fiberfil
114 X 26 X 26 in. (dimensions variable)
© Stacey R Chinn

13. Dressed to the ICD-9s
2012
screen print on cotton military surgical drape
58 X 26 X 20 in. (dimensions variable)
© Stacey R Chinn

14. Louise Bourgeois
Femme, 2002
fabric
Currently on display in
Bottoms Up: A Sculpture Survey
University of Kentucky Art Museum
Courtesy of Cheim & Read and Hauser & Wirth
Untitled
1995
hand stitched cheesecloth
and found objects
© Stacey R Chinn

15. Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 2002, tapestry, aluminium, 45.7 × 30.5 × 30.5 cm
Courtesy Cheim & Read and Hauser & Wirth
© Louise Bourgeois Trust / Licensed by VAGA, New York / Viscopy, Sydney
http://artworldwomen.com/louise-bourgeois-recognizing-the-self-the-artists-way/

16. Take Flight (left) and Ship Yourself to the Philippines (right) from Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover,
CS(A)rt: Community Supported Art program, Lexington Art League, 2013
knitted yarn & found object (left), burlap and styrofoam (right)
© Stacey R Chinn
Community through Art

17. Urban Shawl from offSITE,
Lexington Art League, 2013-14
knitted biodegradable flagging tape
© Stacey R Chinn

18. String Theory
Josephine Sculpture Park, 2014-15
knitted biodegradable flagging tape
© Stacey R Chinn
YeARNing, 2015
Lexington Art League’s
Woodland Art Fair
arm-knitted tobacco cloth
© Stacey R Chinn

21. Fortitudine Vincimus (By Endurance We Conquer)
2015, military issue rifling mittens, lace fabric, wire, thread and bullet casings
Currently on display in Pretty Aggressive at MS Rezny Gallery
© Stacey R Chinn - Photo: Mary Rezny
One Work Says it All
(or at least says a lot)

22. Grave Doll
PERUVIAN, Nazca or Chancay Peoples
wool, fabric, grass and wood
8 ½ x 11 x 10 in. (22 x 28 x 25.5 cm)
Courtesy of University of Kentucky Art Museum (Permanent Collection)

23. ANNETTE MESSAGER
"The Messengers"
Remains (Family II), 2000
09 August - 03 November 2008
© Annette Messager
MAC/VAL, Musée d’art contemporain Conseil général du Val-de-marne
Photo: Jacque Faujour

24. http://artnews.org/moritokyo/?exi=16958
• Painting, photography, articles, objects assembled from found objects, words, stuffed
animals, plush toys, fabrics, embroidery, thread and knitting: these and many other objects
from everyday life have found their way into the art of Annette Messager since she began
working in the 1970s. Keeping her work based firmly in everyday life, Messager explores the
various dichotomies and contradictions inherent in the human condition: religion and
secularity, humor and fear, love and pain, woman and man, animal and human, childhood
and adulthood, life and death, surface and substance. Springing perhaps from meditations on
impulsive collecting or the body, from games with plush toys, or from clever wordplay,
Messager's art possesses both a childlike innocence and a brutality that afford multiple
readings. With a flair for incorporating wry humor into even the most direct confrontations
with negative aspects of human endeavor, Messager is able to move and delight people of all
generations.
• Charming and fantastical, and at times taking strange and mysterious forms, Messager's art
works are "messengers" that talk directly to our souls.

25. • Louise Bourgeois
• Barbara Chase-Riboud
• Sheila Hicks
• Claire Zeisler
• Annette Messaget
• Eva Hesse
• Lenore Tawney
• Jackie Winsor
• Lee Bontecou
• Bettye & Alison Saar
• Kiki Smith
• Ursula Von Rydingsvard
• Magdalena Abakanowicz
• Sarah Lucas
• Kendall Buster
• Meret Oppenheim
• Petah Coyne
Women Fiber Artists