Gloria F. Ross & Modern Tapestry

September 2010

A recent book by Ann Lane Hedlund, Ph.D.
Foreword by Grace Glueck

Gloria F. Ross (1923–1998) described her work as the translation of paint into wool. She was deeply committed to reinventing the centuries-old art of tapestry, particularly championing the handmade in contemporary art. This remarkable book, written by textile scholar Ann Lane Hedlund, draws from rare unpublished archives to unravel the evolution of Ross’s modern tapestries and to illuminate the significance of her creative partnerships.

Gloria F. Ross & Modern Tapestry features the collaborative work of 28 acclaimed modernist painters and sculptors, including Helen Frankenthaler (Ross’s sister), Kenneth Noland, and Louise Nevelson, with several dozen traditional yet innovative weavers in France, Scotland, and the southwestern United States. Brief biographies of the artists, letters, notes, sketches, and photographs illustrate the practical and aesthetic challenges that occupied Gloria Ross over three decades.

Ann Lane Hedlund is curator of ethnology at Arizona State Museum and professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. She directs the Gloria F. Ross Tapestry Program. Grace Glueck was an art reporter, editor, and critic in The New York Times cultural news department for more than three decades.

The book is available after November 8, 2010 at Arizona State Museum’s store or from Yale University Press (1-800-405-1619).

367 pages, 416 color and 36 black-and-white illustrations, cloth, ISBN 978-0-300-16635-4, $65.00. Please visit the book website for more information.

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