Untitled Leather Construction
Claire Zeisler
1974–1975
- Medium
- Cut leather (suede), cotton, glazed ceramic, glass, coins, foil-wrapped stones, mother-of-pearl button, and clear plastic shells; appliquéd, pieced and over sewn with cotton needle lace; straight, button hole, stem and roman stitches; some printed
- Dimensions
- 31.1 × 48.9 cm (12 1/4 × 19 1/4 in.)
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
stonecotton (textile)fiber constructionprintingcutting (dividing)glassmother of pearlfiberappliqué (technique)plasticfiber artChicagoconstructionChicago artistassemblage (sculpture technique)suedeneedlework (visual works)sewing20th CenturyTextilefoilceramicmetal
About
This experimental work was created by textile designer Claire Zeisler, who studied at the Institute of Design (ID) in the 1940s with avant-garde sculptor Alexander Achipenko. Zeisler is known for her monumental, free compositions of knotted and wrapped fiber. This suede rectangle was part of a series of works that incorporated mundane found materials such as stones, coins, printed textiles, buttons, and bits of glass. This suede rectangle became the ground for a collage of natural and manmade objects, attached with colored thread, along with geometric shapes in cut suede, much like the exercises undertaken as texture studies at the ID.
