Françoise Grossen

Museum of Art and Design

October 18, 2016—March 15, 2017

Swiss-born and New York-based artist Françoise Grossen is a seminal name in fiber art, a trend that introduced some of the most important artists of the ‘60s and the ‘70s, including Eva Hesse and Sheila Hicks. Running against the patriarchal trends of the time, a group of artists, including Grossen, delved into rituals of making things. Deemed as laborious, crafty, and ‘feminine’, fiber art evolved into manifestation of body, subconsciousness, and identity. 

Françoise Grossen, Five Rivers, 1974

Rather than a typical retrospective chronicling her decades-spanning career, Grossen here instead mines the Museum of Art and Design’s vast archive, pairing some of her monumental rope pieces with works from the museum collection. Combining the ritualistic tradition of fiber art, sculptures by the influential artist and others celebrate tactility, vigor, and accomplishment. Françoise Grossen Selects is a great opportunity to look at the artist’s enthralling knot sculptures that blur the definitions of craft, art, and design.