Pre-Columbian Feathers (verso)

1980

Lenore Tawney

(American, 1907–2007)

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Culture

America

Medium

pen and black ink and watercolor and collage

Measurements

Image: 8.9 x 14 cm (3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.); Sheet: 8.9 x 14 cm (3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Katharine Kuh 1981.198.1.b

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Lenore Tawney was a pioneering fiber artist known for large-scale public installations, but her postcard collages were personal missives to close friends on an intimate scale.

Description

This is one of 44 postcard collages in the CMA’s collection that the textile artist Lenore Tawney sent through the mail to her friend, the art dealer, curator, and critic Katherine Kuh between 1969 and 1981. Using natural objects and ephemera that she compiled over a lifetime, Tawney’s collages display the artist’s personal visual vocabulary and poetic response to materials. Recurring images—such as eggs, feathers, birds, baby animals, crosses, and circles—engage with universal themes such as vulnerability, resilience, infinity, and spirituality. This collage, a Christmas card, features feathers arrayed to imitate a fire.