User:Weeniedoglover13/Weaving

Women's work
Weaving is a practice that is typically considered to be “women’s work”, either part of their employment, cultural practices, or leisure [ women's wok isbn: 9780811804660 44, bauhaus women isbn: 9782080301208 34, womens work as political art isbn: ‎0739110632 (1)].​​ The categorization of weaving as women’s work has bled into many fields, from art history, anthropology, sociology, and even psychology. While he notes that women have not contributed much to civilization’s history, Sigmund Freud writes that “one technique which they may have invented [is] that of plaiting and weaving.” [freud isbn: 9780393007435, 132]

Women’s work is often not recorded as a central activity to building Western history and culture. [weaving the word isbn: 9780268034863 21] Yet, some anthropologists argue that textile production facilitated societal establishment and growth, therefore women were integral to perpetuating communities [weaving the word isbn: 9780268034863 21-22]. To record their stories, beliefs, and symbols important to their culture, women engaged in weaving, embroidering, or other fiber practices. These practices have existed for centuries documented through art history, myth, and oral history and are still practiced today. [weaving the world 9780268034863 136- 140]

Reception in the art world
Weaving is often classified as “craft” alongside other art forms like ceramics, embroidery, basket weaving, and more. Historically, there has been a hierarchy between artists who were considered “craftspeople” and artists who worked in traditional mediums of painting, sculpture, and so on. (artsy https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-embracing-craft ) The traditional artists wanted to keep artisans in the minority, so there was little reception for arts that were considered craft.

In 1939, art critic Clement Greenberg wrote “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” where he presented his ideas about “high” and “low” art. His definition of “low” art was likely informed by years of theory against decoration, ornamentation, and femininity that emerged in the early 1900s from critics like Adolf Loos and Karl Scheffler. [ornament and crime, loos: 1572410469, 3518425110 ]. Although Greenberg never explicitly says the word “craft”, many scholars postulate that this is one of the origins of Western opposition to weaving, and more largely art that is considered craft. [cite article on clement greenberg, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20107990]

Only recently has the art world begun to recognize weaving as an art form and exhibit them as art objects. Exhibitions of large scope have been organized to affirm textiles’s importance in the art historical canon such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 ( https://www.moca.org/exhibition/with-pleasure ). Women weavers, such as Anni Albers, are now the subject of major retrospectives ( https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/anni-albers ). However, a majority of weavers being recognized in major institutions are predominantly white.