Setting out to celebrate, document and discuss the
work and role of an international tapestry workshop,
Dovecot Studios, since its foundation in Edinburgh in
1912, this ground-breaking publication uniquely explores
the artistic value, nature and identity of modern
tapestry through images, essays and the commentaries of
weavers, artists and patrons. Dovecot Studios has
constantly evolved since it was established before the
Great War. Initial Arts and Crafts ideals developed into
a more proactive engagement with modernism from the
1950s, when designs came from leading British artists
such as Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore, Stanley Spencer,
Cecil Beaton and John Piper. In the 1960s international
ambition partnered a quest for experimentation, as
characterised by collaborations with artists such as
Eduardo Paolozzi, David Hockney, Robert Motherwell and
Louise Nevelson. Throughout Dovecot's long history many
Scottish artists have worked with the tapestry studio,
and their intuitive sense of design and colour has often
been richly matched by the imagination of the artist
weavers.Experiment and partnership with innovative
artists and makers have been, and actively remain, key
to Dovecot's unique position within the fields of craft
and contemporary art. Discussing Dovecot's history along
with its contemporary work, and exploring the range of
textiles produced by the Studio - which include wall
hangings, chair-cover designs, carpets, textile mobiles
and formal robes - The Art of Modern Tapestry offers the
definitive account of one of the world's most innovative
centres of textile-art production. |
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