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Sophie Pitman

@textilehistorian

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Pleasant Rowland Textile Specialist and Research Director of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection @uw_cdmc @uwmadison

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Paris Couture @artsmia is a triumph of a fashion exhibition. Stunning objects, many of which have never been on view before, from @palaisgallieramuseedelamode ‘s collections, combined with some treasures from @artsmia ‘s print collections and some really stellar lighting and hangs. Each room is a love letter to couture, the skilled people who make it, and the stylish women who wear it - and there’s also space for careful reflection about the ways fashion is never far from politics, economics, and culture. An exhibition to return to and revel in! As always, endlessly proud of @max.bryant.1 , who finds new things to say about old things 🪡 taken in Minneapolis Institute of Art by @textilehistorian

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4 days ago

The center welcomes poet and visual artist Jen Bervin for two upcoming events!

On Wednesday, October 7 from 3:00 - 4:00 pm, Jen Bervin will lead a workshop focused on close reading of textile fragments from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, in collaboration with Sophie Pitman, the collection's Research Director. This workshop aims to connect participants through slow looking and collaborative thinking processes. There are limited spots for this workshop; register for free through the link in our bio!

On Thursday, October 8 at 5:00 pm, Jen Bervin will give the Ninth Annual Bernstein Book Arts Lecture, delivering a talk entitled “*You can almost feel the date”. For the past 8 years, Kohler Art Library has invited master book artists to engage with students and community members by sharing their creative processes. This is a public lecture and requires no registration. It will be held in room L150 of the Elvehjem Building. We hope to see you at either or both of these amazing interactive events! A close-up photograph of a woven textile. The background color is a muted dark blue, with cream color creating the small geometric flower designs. Between these repeated square motifs are cream colored circles that connect each part of the design together. by @textilehistorian

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13 days ago

ImPRESSed Yet?

I am thrilled to announce that Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric will be published October 27 in print and Open Access with @acmrs_press, thanks to 30 textile and print scholars, and 1 groundbreaking exhibition @newberrylibrary! #CoverReveal

It's nearly 350 pages of rarely seen engravings, woodcuts, and letterpress on silk, cotton, and linen! Our collaborative essays are by Courtney Wilder, Edward Wouk, Philip A. Sykas, Theresa Kutasz Christensen, Catharine Dann Roeber, Marina Garone Gravier, Megan Creamer and Kimberly Nichols!

Another 40 "catalogue" entries by an international writing crew tell the story of narrative printing on fabric from c. 1350 to today, from Europe throughout the Americas! Not everything will be on view in Chicago, but if you come see the show in person, you can take home a fabric print made in 2025!

And we can't wait to introduce you to the star of the show, and subject of TWO book chapters, Manuela Cerezo, of Puebla, Mexico and her 1746 satin thesis broadside!

Can't wait for Open Access and want to pre-order print? The University of Chicago Press is our distributor! See link in bio! And did I mention it also involves SATIN Dürers? by @textilehistorian

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18 days ago

People around the world witnessed and recorded the 9/11 attacks on America, sometimes making sense of events by making objects. This large wall hanging, vibrantly and densely embroidered by Rosina Maepa in South Africa, shows how one woman processed the language and visuals broadcast globally over the news. It was collected by the late folklorist and photographer Roland Freeman, before coming to the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection in 2023. Today, I shared this powerful work with a visiting class of graduate students who are taking @darkhorsepress ‘s class on the “Artist as Researcher”. Students explored how, by using methods developed by scholars of material culture, textiles might help tell stories of people otherwise not recorded in history. They noticed how objects can complicate our assumptions about the world, and raise new questions. We also discussed how much our own context - place, values, skills, and time period especially - influence our own material knowledge. This is a potent object any day, but today even more so, as we remember the many lives changed by 9/11. Rosina Maepa, Wall hanging, 2001, South Africa
Cotton embroidery on cotton, 34 x 45.5 in. (86.36 x 115.57 cm)
Gift of Kohler Foundation, Inc. HLATC 2023.01.001 @uw_cdmc taken in Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection by @textilehistorian

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a month ago

🍐 Practically Pearfect 🍐 In 1954, the artist Ruth Grotenrath designed and hand-printed 1,250 yards of pear yardage @wistatefair As far as I’ve been able to find, the only surviving piece in a collection is in the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection @uwmadison - but it’s been on loan the last year @renwickgallery for their boot-stomping, neon-flashing, prize-ribbon-winning, corn-buttered treat of an exhibition: State Fairs: Growing American Craft. This weekend is your last chance to visit! Cowboy-hats off to @marysavig for finding and telling so many powerful stories of makers across the nation. I went to my first state fair less than a month after moving to the Midwest, and they remain for me a joyful, baffling, and inspiring merry-go-round into the American psyche - I love how this exhibition celebrates the many minds, hands, and lives that craft and have been crafted by State Fairs. After the towering pear-topped pyramid of over 800 preserves, and Ruth’s pear yardage, notice the carefully hand-speckled magnets (thanks to the brilliant care of the @americanart team!) before enjoying some other ribbon-winning objects from Wisconsin taken in Renwick Gallery by @textilehistorian

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a month ago

Acquired in 1963 from a small village near Kerman, this finely embroidered Pateh became part of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection in 1991. Today, I had the privilege of examining and cataloging this remarkable textile.

Its catalog entry will be available on the collection’s website soon.

این پته که در سال ۱۹۶۳ از روستایی کوچک در نزدیکی کرمان خریداری شده، از سال ۱۹۹۱ بخشی از مجموعه منسوجات هلن لوئیز آلن است. امروز این پته را بررسی کردم و اطلاعات لازم را برای مجموعه آماده کردم.

به‌زودی اطلاعات کامل‌تر این اثر در وب‌سایت مجموعه منتشر خواهد شد.

@uw_cdmc
@textilehistorian
@faaezehjafari by @textilehistorian

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2 months ago

🇺🇸Happy 250th USA! 🇺🇸 Here are a just a few of the many patriotic American textiles housed in The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection - reminding us of the many generations of people who have worked with their hands to beautify and celebrate this country. taken in Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture by @textilehistorian

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3 months ago

Huge thanks to @textilehistorian at the Nancy M Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture! Field to Frock participants came from far and wide for a special insider tour of historic linens today 🤩

The Helen Louise Allen collection is such a treasure! taken in Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture by @textilehistorian

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4 months ago

This week, I have been conducting in-depth research on a remarkable Persian tribal rug at the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. Special thanks to @textilehistorian , my supervisor, whose support and insight have made me feel incredibly productive and tenacious throughout this research process.

@textilehistorian
@faaezehjafari
@uw_cdmc taken in Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection by @textilehistorian

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4 months ago

Farewell Find Your Quilt! Come with me to turn the lights off for the final time, say goodbye to your favorite quilts, and help me thank the many people who made this exhibition so meaningful and beautiful. #quilt #exhibition #triangle taken in Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture by @textilehistorian

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7 months ago

Join the center for an inspiring afternoon of conversation and connection at Meet the Makers: A Panel and Gallery Conversation with Contemporary Artists in Find Your Quilt. Hear from featured artists Kate Flake, Carlee Latimer, Sam Northcut, Rosemary Ollison, Amy Wendt, and Mengni Zhang as they share insights into their work. After the panel, the conversation will continue in the gallery with the opportunity to see the works up close and celebrate the closing of the Find Your Quilt exhibition. The event will take place in the Wisconsin Idea Room (1199), the Link, and the Ruth Davis Design Gallery from 1:30-3:30 PM on March 1. Two zoomed in photographs of two different artworks, spliced together into one frame. The work on the top is Circles and Fringe by Rosemary Ollison. Cut out circles of blue, red, and yellow leather are sewn to a black leather backgroung, with tangles of thin red and white thread connecting the circles. The work of art in the bottom image is "Rustling Veil" by Mengni Zhang. The photograph shows the back of the piece and its electrical elements, featuring tangled red, yellow, and black wires connecting to rows of small, white motors that protrude from the back of the sculpture. by @textilehistorian

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8 months ago

❤️Happy Valentine’s Day!❤️Take your sweetheart to the @uw_cdmc galleries this weekend and find hearts, roses, and love birds on view in Find Your Quilt. Quilts are so often made and shared with love - so no wonder we find expressions of affection stitched into them. Hands reach out towards a shared heart in one album quilt, likely made by a community of friends and family to celebrate a marriage. In a 19thC English quilt, appliqué love hearts and flowers have been cut from fashionable printed cottons. Rumi O’Brien’s work depicts a self-portrait of her overflowing with love. You can spy embroidered, printed, and painted bouquets decorating highly patterned blocks. And in a sujini quilt, perhaps made to celebrate the arrival of a child, love birds flock trees abundant with fruit. 🌹All quilts on view in Find Your Quilt, open until 3/1/26! 🌹 taken in Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture by @textilehistorian

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