“The process of creating textiles has long been a springboard for artistic invention. In Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art, two extraordinary bodies of work separated by at least 500 years are brought together to explore the striking connections between artists of the ancient Andes and those of the 20th century. The exhibition, which opened at The Met on March 5, 2024, features textiles by four distinguished modern practitioners—Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney, and Olga de Amaral—alongside pieces by Andean artists from the first millennium BCE to the 16th century, who, though their names are largely unknown to us, created works of exceptional technical and formal refinement.” — The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Installation views of  Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view March 5 – June 16, 2024. Images: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photos by Hyla Skopitz. 

Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art features more than 50 works, including new acquisitions. The exhibition also includes loans from Buffalo Museum of Science; The Museum of Modern Art; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation; Lenore G. Tawney Foundation; and private collectors. 

The exhibition is curated by Iria Candela, Estrellita B. Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Joanne Pillsbury, Andrall E. Pearson Curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.

Images courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.