Nude and Flowers
1922
Marguerite Zorach (American, 1887–1968)
United States
In Nude and Flowers, Marguerite Thompson Zorach foregrounded both aesthetic and sensory experiences by using textiles as her medium. The looped or hooked fabric strips (cut from well-loved garments), which have been pulled through and held in place by the woven ground, emphasize an approach to artmaking that is as much about touch and the manipulation of materials as it is about their visual arrangement. Zorach carried this sensory engagement further with the large, stylized flowers, foliage, and shells that surround the nude figure; their lushness and scale suggest a potent olfactory and tactile experience.
Linen, plain weave; cotton, wool and silk, plain and twill weaves, velvet and knitted strips forming “hooked” pile; edges with wool, single crochet