“Ptolemy Mann’s unique approach to hand dyeing and weaving wall-based, architectural art works has become the basis for a modern-day Bauhaus philosophy of art making and design underpinned with intelligent colour theory. Having developed a unique approach to creating her work over a twenty-five-year period, Mann has now developed a new series entitled, ‘Thread Paintings’, as she explores the relationship between paint and textile.
In this series, warp threads of the ground cloth are hand dyed and woven on the loom and then stretched over a frame. A further application of acrylic paint onto the finished surface results in a gestural colour field that contrasts with the linear woven ground. The result is a merging of the ‘soak stain painting’ technique of the Abstract Expressionist movement with a Bauhaus vision of art making through craftmanship. This combination of techniques creates a dynamic three-dimensional play on the real definition of what painting can be.
Breaking the ‘rules’ of both weaving and painting, the brushstrokes in Thread Painting are, according to Ann Coxen, curator at the Tate Modern, loaded with paint and with meaning. ‘They may be seen as a violent obliteration of the woven surface, yet the paint adds more colour, sitting in juxtaposition and harmony with the woven ground, sometimes soaking and bleeding into the fibres, sometimes appearing to float on top. Dyed colour and applied colour sit together, complicating the distinction between structure and surface, the woven and the painted, the thread and the trace.’ The exhibition coincides with the publication of Mann’s first monograph. Entitled ‘Thread Paintings’, it includes an essay by Ann Coxon who places her work in historical context noting that 'painting and weaving come with their historical baggage, necessarily inflecting our understanding of the work. But Mann’s thread paintings also have their own seductive beauty and materiality into which they invite us to become immersed.’
Ptolemy Mann has exhibited widely and received solo exhibitions in the US, UK, and Germany. She has completed many site-specific installations including ‘Circadian Rhythm’, a commission for the 9th floor restaurant in the Blavatnik building at the Tate Modern, London” — Taste Contemporary.
Image: (detail) Ptolemy Mann, ‘Thread Painting with Red and Green’, 2023, courtesy Taste Contemporary.
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Wednesday: 10am - 6pm
Thursday: 10am - 6pm
Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday: 10am - 6pm
Sunday: 10am - 4pm
