Coverlet (Section of) c. 1940

William Kieckhofel’s ‘Coverlet (Section of)’ is made from woven thread in muted blues and grays and it looks like it might have been an exercise in control and release. The way the threads lock together, alternate, and interweave, must have been deeply satisfying for the artist. I can just imagine him, carefully interlacing each strand, building up the structure slowly, methodically, but then letting loose, allowing the weave to loosen, break apart, and decay in the centre. Maybe he felt a pull between tradition and modernity. Weaving is ancient. What does it mean to disrupt its order and break with it, like Kieckhofel does? I am reminded of Anni Albers and her beautiful explorations with weaving, texture, and geometric abstraction. Like Albers, Kieckhofel seems to embrace the grid, but then destabilizes it with a controlled chaos. Textiles and paintings are made with an intense amount of labor, and both invite us to look closely and slowly. They are objects that show the time and care that artists put into the making.