12/10/2014
Richard Tuttle
Tate Modern, London
I Don't Know - The Weave of Textile Language. The vast space of Turbine Hall welcomes the largest work ever created by renowned American artist. This newly commissioned sculpture combines sways of fabrics in 3 brilliant colours.
Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall has played host to some of the world’s most striking and memorable works of contemporary art. Now, this vast space welcomes the largest work ever created by renowned American sculptor Richard Tuttle (born 1941).
Entitled I Don’t Know . The Weave of Textile Language, this newly commissioned sculpture combines vast sways of fabrics designed by the artist from both man-made and natural fibres in three bold and brilliant colours.
Richard Tuttle (b 1941) came to prominence in the 1960s, combining sculpture, painting, poetry and drawing. He has become revered for his delicate and playful approach, often using such humble, everyday materials as cloth, paper, rope and plywood. For this project, Tuttle has taken as his starting point one of the unsung heroes of everyday life: textiles.
Textiles are commonly associated with craft and fashion, yet woven canvas lies behind many of the world’s most acclaimed works of art and textiles are of increasing interest to artists today. I Don’t Know. The Weave of Textile Language investigates the importance of this material throughout history, across Tuttle’s remarkable body of work and into the latest developments in his practice.
The commission is part of a wider survey of the artist taking place in London this autumn and comprising a major exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery surveying five decades of Tuttle’s career and a sumptuous new publication rooted in the artist’s own collection of historic and contemporary textiles.
A double whammy of exhibitions for the revered American artist: a textile-based commission in the Tate’s Turbine Hall and a retrospective at the Whitechapel.
Evening Standard, Autumn 2014’s hottest London events
Organised by Tate Modern in association with the Whitechapel Gallery
Related events
Families Welcome Room: Warp & Weft
Every weekend. Additionally, Thursdays and Fridays during school holidays, 11.00–16.00
Sonic Weave. Exploring Silk and Viscose Through Sound
Saturdays and Sundays plus school holidays Thursdays and Friday, 11.00–16.00
Courses and workshops
Fibre, thread and textile
Saturday 25–Sunday 26 October 2014, 13.00–17.00
Press Officer
Duncan Holden Call +44 (0)20 78874939 Email duncan.holden@tate.org.uk
Assistant Press Officer: Cecily Carbone Call +44 (0)20 78878731 Email cecily.carbone@tate.org.uk
Media View: 13 October 2014, 9am – 1pm
Tate Modern
Bankside London
Opening times:
Sunday – Thursday, 10.00–18.00
Friday and Saturday, 10.00–22.00
Closed 24–26 December
Free entry