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“Seeing Red: World Textiles” Opens Aug.28
August 27, 2015 - August 28, 2015
Festival Exhibition: “Seeing Red: World Textiles”
August 28 – September 26, 2015
Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center (122 S. Walnut) | FREE
Gallery Hours:
Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Extended hours till midnight on Festival showcase nights Sept. 25-26
Lotus Education & Arts Foundation kicks off another festival season with an exquisite exhibition this September 2015 at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Art Center, Bloomington, Indiana. “Seeing Red: World Textiles” presents rare and dramatic handmade ethnic cloth featuring dyed shades of red as the dominant color. Selected from seven Indiana collections, artifacts such as wraps, robes, coverlets, shawls, rugs, bags, hats, and mats represent cultures from around the world.
Exhibit Collectors and Textile Experts: Gail Hale, Suzanne Halvorson, Joan Hart, William Itter, Barbara Livesey, Harold Mailand, George Malacinski, and Sarah Noggle.
September 4 – Opening Reception, 5 – 8pm; First Fridays gallery walk
Red is a color that challenges us: bright and glorious, and both celebrated and reviled. In every culture, red has a meaning: in China it is happiness and weddings, in Europe it was the color of status and distinction, in some countries “evil.” Red is a dominant color: Our eyes are capable of seeing more hues for red than any other color. The range of red is vast and embodied in every culture. Artists have explored the use of red in pigments and light, with repercussions in textile art. The psychology of “Seeing Red” will be the focus of this talk. Hart will explore the visual perception of red in textile art from the earliest use of ochre in cave paintings and textiles to the synthetic dyes of today.
Joan Hart has a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught at several colleges, including Indiana University, Purdue University, Bowdoin College, Wabash College. She has been advising museums and collectors in the US and abroad about their textile collections, as well as lecturing at the Louvre, Russian Academy of Art, among others. She continues to write on art historiography and textile history. Textiles from all over the world can be found in Joan Hart’s collection, and she has specialized in Kashmir and paisley shawls.
In partnership with the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center and the Center for Lifelong Learning, and Bloomington Lifelong Learning Coalition.
September 26 – “Seeing Red” Collectors gallery talk, 4-5pm, Miller and Treasurer’s Galleries
The “Seeing Red” exhibit is curated by a volunteer committee of collectors, conservation experts, retired faculty, and artists of world textiles, presented by the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation. The exhibit includes a broad array of textiles from around the world and from many periods: an early Coptic fragment, a Persian hanging, a Mexican huipil, Kashmir shawls, a Turkman carpet, an Uzbek robe, to recent bedcovers that demonstrate the wide range of and use of red throughout history. Each collector will discuss a particular piece from their collection, its history, geographic origin, cultural connections, and explain the particular use of the color red in the textile.
In partnership with the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center and the Center for Lifelong Learning, Bloomington Lifelong Learning Coalition, and the Rug and Textile Society of Indiana.
Sponsored by:
All events are free and open to the public. Part of the 22nd Lotus World Music & Arts Festival.