Edinburgh studios’ creations on display at Warwickshire gallery

Tapestry: Weaving the Century at Dovecot Studios 1912-2012 includes rarely seen works by Alan Davie, David Hockney, Paul Gauguin, Elizabeth Blackadder, Peter Blake, Edward Wadsworth, Cecil Beaton, Graham Sutherland, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Jankel Adler, among others.

Over the last century Dovecot Studios has produced more than 700 tapestries and rugs ranging from the more traditional, finely-woven hangings to experimental textile art.

This exhibition, curated by Dr Elizabeth Cumming, presents over 60 of these tapestries and rugs on loan from major museums and private collections in America and Britain.

Each one, created at Dovecot during the twentieth and early twenty-first century, represents the broad range of visual and technical weaving styles that has established Dovecot’s reputation as a centre for excellence and innovation.

Dr Cumming said: “Tapestry is an extraordinary and special art which brings together two worlds to make a new one.

“A weave is as individual as the weaver who interprets a design.”

This is the first time that such a vast collection of works produced by Dovecot has been shown together.

Whilst revealing the history of Dovecot, it also offers the opportunity to explore the rich artistic potential of modern tapestry. Visitors will see how arts and crafts ideals, synonymous with the fine weaving of Scottish historical and pastoral designs of William Skeoch Cumming and Alfred Priest, evolved into an engagement with
modern, Neo-Romantic art from the 1950s onwards, when designs came from leading artists including Graham Sutherland, Paul Gauguin, Jankel Adler, Edward Wadsworth and John Piper.

A quest for experimentation dominated the 1960s and 1970s when Dovecot worked with a range of artists including Eduardo Paolozzi, David Hockney and Elizabeth Blackadder.

Since then there have been Dovecot collaborations with John Bellany, Barbara Rae, Kate Whiteford and, more recently, with
William Crozier and Liz Rideal.

The exhibition also has an interactive element: the Stratford-upon-Avon Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers will be setting up a studio within the exhibition space, demonstrating weaving techniques as well as running hands-on workshops for visitors.

The event runs from Saturday October 20 to Sunday December 16.

For more information call 645500 or visit www.compton
verney.org.uk