By Shea Miller
A fusion of ancient and modern art is weaving its way into the BYU Museum of Art beginning April 21, 2006.
'Tapestries: The Great 20th Century Modernists' features 19 tapestries from America and Europe based on contemporary paintings and woven beginning in the 1950s. The MOA is one of only six American museums - the only museum in the West - to host this group of tapestries.
In the 1930s, Jean Lur?at, a French surrealist painter, led the revival of tapestry with a system that simplified the complicated process of weaving. He created cartoons - designs that were meant solely for the loom and were not reproductions of oil paintings, as in earlier times.
'It is ironic that modern art would bring back such and ancient art form,' said Christopher Wilson, marketing manager at the MOA.
Although the art of weaving tapestries was simplified, it took one weaver an average of one month to make one square meter, Wilson said. The largest tapestry in the exhibit is 10-by-11.5 feet.
Paul Anderson, art curator for the MOA, explained that for every tapestry a team of four artists was involved, including the designer of the cartoon, the manufacturer of the threads, the dyer and the weaver.
'This exhibition is a fusion of new and old, the bold abstract designs of modernism and the ancient techniques of hand-woven tapestry,' Anderson said. 'And it is a surprisingly appealing combination. The simple geometries and pure colors of much modern art transfer readily to the loom, and the large scale and texture of tapestry give these designs a sense of drama, warmth and richness.'
To preserve the rich colors, however, the tapestries have to be displayed in the Jackman Gallery on the museum''s lower level because of their fragile and light-sensitive nature.
Anderson said tapestries were originally used in the 1370s in Paris as room dividers and to bring added warmth to austere and drafty castles.
The exhibition is organized by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions in Washington. The exhibition will be open to the public through July 24, 2006. There will be an opening reception April 20, 2006, from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission to the exhibit is free, as is the reception.