I Don’t Know, Or The Weave of Textile Language is a unique project by the renowned US artist Richard Tuttle (born 1941). It will be the largest survey of his work ever held in the UK, comprising an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, a large-scale sculpture in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and a new publication.
Richard Tuttle came to prominence in the 1960s, combining sculpture, painting, poetry and drawing. He has become revered for his delicate and playful approach, often using such humble, everyday materials as cloth, paper, rope and plywood. For this project, Tuttle has taken as his starting point one of the unsung heroes of everyday life: textile.
Textile is commonly associated with craft and fashion, yet woven canvas lies behind many of the world’s most acclaimed works of art and textiles are of increasing interest to artists today. I Don’t Know, Or The Weave of Textile Language investigates the importance of this material throughout history, across Tuttle’s remarkable body of work and into the latest developments in his practice.
Exhibition
From 14 October to 14 December 2014, the Whitechapel Gallery will present a major exhibition surveying Tuttle’s career from mid 1960s until today. Showcasing works selected in close dialogue with the artist, it will centre on his use of fibre, thread and textile and will offer a fascinating introduction to Tuttle’s influential body of work.
Commission
Alongside this exhibition, Tate Modern will present a newly commissioned sculpture in its iconic Turbine Hall from 14 October 2014 to 6 April 2015. Principally constructed of fabric, it will be the largest work ever created by the artist, measuring over twelve metres in height. Contrasting with the solid industrial architecture of the Turbine Hall, the work will be suspended from the ceiling to create a huge volume of joyous colour and fluidity.
Publication
A new book will be published as part of this project, drawing on Tuttle’s knowledge as a longstanding collector of textiles from around the world. It will include photographs of his collection, texts about the historical, aesthetic, social and material value of textiles, images of works from the Whitechapel Gallery exhibition and documentation of the sculpture at Tate Modern.
Richard Tuttle was born in New Jersey in 1941, and now lives and works between Maine, New Mexico and New York. His work is held in major private and public collections around the world and recent retrospectives have been held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
I Don’t Know, Or The Weave of Textile Language is curated by Magnus af Petersens, Chief Curator, Whitechapel Gallery and Achim Borchardt-Hume, Head of Exhibitions, Tate Modern with Poppy Bowers, Assistant Curator, Whitechapel Gallery and Loren Hansi Momodu, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern. The publication is designed by Mark Thomson and is published by Tate Publishing in association with the Whitechapel Gallery.
