Currents: ‘Wall Power!’ at the Clark Institute Explores the Art of Tapestry
And anything that has ever been always emerges in a new form.”
– Alvar Aalto (1898–1976)
An exhibition on view through March 9 at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, explores hanging fabrics from the 1940s to the present day. Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris includes works by the likes of Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, and Kiki Smith. Also featured prominently is Le Corbusier, who believed that tapestry could add visual interest, through texture, color, and line, to otherwise spare surroundings and assist with acoustics. He invented the term “muralnomad” for the art form, corresponding to his concept of the nature of modern life—in which people moved homes frequently—intending for these works to be easily “detached, rolled, carried under one’s arm, and hung elsewhere,” in the manner of tapestries of old. La femme et la maréchal ferrant (pictured) was designed by Le Corbusier in 1958 and woven in 1967, after his death.
