Vintage Fiber Art by Mariska Karasz

Regular price $0

Shipping calculated at checkout.
USA, 1950s   Beautiful detail and color on this vintage fiber art by Mariska Karasz. Label on reverse is partially torn but is from the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York. Very modern colorway and an excellent example of detailed stitchery. Gorgeous vintage fiber art. Signed (stitched) in the corner 'M. K.'   CONDITION NOTES: Small chip on frame- edge of bottom right corner. Fibers are vibrant and in excellent condition; no odors.   DIMENSIONS: 29 1/8" W x 24.5" H x 1.25" D   ABOUT MARISKA KARASZ: Self-taught embroiderer Mariska Karasz arrived in the United States from her native Hungary at the age of sixteen. The influence of Hungary's rich folk-art tradition is reflected in her early work. As her interest in fiber art developed, Karasz began to incorporate silk, line, cotton, wool, thread, hemp, horsehair, and wood into her fiber hangings. Her materials were carefully chosen for their texture, color, and any unusual quality, such as an inconsistent dye in the yarn.   After a successful book, “Adventures in Stitches: A New Art of Embroidery,” published in 1949, Karasz went on to guest edit at House Beautiful and is credited as reviving domestic embroidery in the 1950s.   She exhibited her work in museums and galleries across the county, in over 60 solo shows during the 1950s. Her increasingly abstract wall hangings mixing fibers such as silk, cotton, wool, and hemp with horsehair and wood garnered her extensive national, and even international, attention. Critics repeatedly praised her for her skillful and unusual use of color, her creative combinations of materials, and her inspiring efforts to promote a modern approach to embroidery. Her love of texture, color, and pattern is evident in all of her work.   Her work is held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and in the Cooper Hewitt Museum.