Joanne Pillsbury. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Spin A Yarn, Joanne Pillsbury, specialist in the art and archaeology of the ancient Americas, will discuss with exhibition curator Estrellita Brodsky two extraordinary textile traditions separated by at least 500 years to explore the striking connections between artist of the ancient Andes and those of the 20th and 21st centuries.
This program will take place in Guild Hall’s newly renovated theater.
Spin a Yarn considers the close relationship between textiles and language, and particularly the use of fiber arts as story-telling devices, from ancient Andean times to the present. Originally a nautical term to describe the laborious process of rope making, the phrase “spin a yarn” evolved to refer to the stories sailors fabricated to pass their time during long sea voyages.
The exhibition features work by over 25 international artists and includes tapestries, embroideries, quilts, Vodou flags, and other fiber-based works. Spin A Yarn examines the historical importance of the tradition of textiles as tools for communication and cultural expression, as well as their increasing use in contemporary art to reflect on social, political, and environmental issues.
This exhibition is curated by Estrellita Brodsky, Founder/Director of ANOTHER SPACE, Chelsea, New York.
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Joanne Pillsbury
Joanne Pillsbury, Andrall E. Pearson Curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the author, editor, or co-editor of numerous publications, including Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas (2015) and Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks (2012), recipient of the Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award. Her 2012 volume, Past Presented: Archaeological Illustration and the Ancient Americas, was honored with the Association for Latin American Art Book Award, and her exhibition catalogue Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas (2017) was winner of the 2018 PROSE Award for Excellence. She was previously associate director of the Getty Research Institute, and prior to that, director of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. Her recent publications include “Aztecs in the Empire City: The ‘People without History’ in the Met” (2021), and, with Iria Candela, Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art (2023).
https://www.metmuseum.org/
Photo courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Estrellita B. Brodsky
Estrellita B. Brodsky, PhD, is a distinguished curator, collector, and philanthropist and an advocate for artists and the art from Latin America and its diaspora.
Brodsky holds a doctorate in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and a Master’s from Hunter College. Her curatorial expertise spans exhibitions and extensive writings, particularly focusing on post-WWII Latin American artists, including Jesús Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Julio Le Parc, whose first U.S. museum survey she curated at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM): Julio Le Parc: Form into Action. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and is a founding member of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Latin American Art Initiative and Tate Americas Foundation Latin American Art Committee. She has endowed curatorial positions in Latin American art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), Tate, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
In 2015 she founded ANOTHER SPACE, a program and not-for-profit exhibition gallery established by the Daniel and Estrellita B. Brodsky Foundation dedicated to broadening international awareness and appreciation of art from Latin America and its diaspora.
Sponsors
Museum programs are supported by Crozier Fine Arts and funding from The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.