2024 Was the Year of the Art World’s High Fiber Diet
Glenn Adamson, Artnews
December 2024
I’ll admit to a complete lack of objectivity when it comes to Lenore Tawney and Toshiko Takaezu, having written the biographies of both artists. But the perfection of this pairing at Alison Jacques Gallery this autumn was undeniable. Tawney, the breakthrough innovator in American fiber art, was close friends with Takaezu, who was equally influential as a ceramist. They often showed their work together in their lifetimes, and even cohabited for a few years in the late 1970s.
Theirs was a case of opposites attracting. Tawney was a birdlike, ethereal mystic, Takaezu as solidly practical as they come. Tawney’s fine linen weavings float, swaying gently in any passing current, while Takaezu’s ceramic “closed forms” are compressed in the extreme, holding their dark air within. Yet in this juxtaposition, one had the profound sense of two entirely kindred spirits. […]