On view June 14 to January 10, 2004
Virginia W. Kettering Gallery of Textiles

Grete Schioler, Silk Shibori, Lent by the Artist, L38.2003

SILK PAINTINGS: A Celebration of Color is a contemporary textile exhibition of

painted and dyed silks by two Dayton artists, Grete Schioler and Erdemute Yachowsky. Several examples of their painted and tie-dyed (Shibori) silks will be on display in the Virginia W. Kettering Gallery of Textiles from June 14 to January 10, 2004.

In the early 19th century in the United States, paintings on silk were traditionally seen in samplers that were partially water-colored and then embroidered in silk floss. The silk painters were considered as the elite of the artists.

Erdmute Yackowsky, A WORLD BEYOND, Silk Batik, Lent by the artist, L32.2003.12

In late 19th century Europe, artists like Degas, Signac and Kokoschka experimented with painting on silks with the new French transparent reactive dyes that produced bright beautiful colors on translucent silk. In the early 1920s, Russian émigrés to Paris introduced Gutta (resist) to separate color shapes, and modern silk painting evolved.

The painting and dyeing of silks is a multifaceted intensive process. Grete Schioler and Erdemute Yackowsky have experimented with producing a multitude of color variations in their work, and each artist has developed a distinctive style.

Grete Schioler, a weaver, studied art and textile science in Copenhagen and Philadelphia and has exhibited extensively throughout the United States. Her woolen yarns are colored with natural and synthetic dyes. She was fascinated with the multiple range of color variations that could be applied to woven silks and mastered the art of producing Shibori, a resist dyeing and pleating technique similar to tie-dyeing that originated in Japan during the Edo Period (1615-1868). The pleats are carefully outlined with fine stitches and tightly drawn so the area is protected from the penetration of dyes when it is submerged into a dye vat, thereby creating a linear element of design.

Erdemute Yackowsky holds degrees from Germany and the United States and has taught fabric design and production in Europe and the United States. In honor of the 2003 celebration of powered flight in Dayton, she has created silk designs that depict the skies, stars and the wondrous worlds beyond.