A major figure in the fiber art movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, Tawney redefined the possibilities of weaving and advanced the explosive growth of fiber art during the second half of the twentieth century. Connected to the tradition of weaving and textiles promoted at the Bauhaus in Germany, Tawney studied in Chicago with Marli Ehrman who joined Moholy-Nagy in establishing the New Bauhaus in Chicago. During the 1950s and 1960s Tawney invented techniques that transformed the craft of weaving into sculpture, by subverting the typical woven grid and pioneering new ways of weaving beyond the traditional loom. To emphasize the sculptural quality,, she created works that hang in space, rather than against the wall. She is part of a lineage of artists expanding the medium that includes Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Sheila Hicks, and Faith Ringgold.
But dwindled to a star is a tall, hanging sculpture made from intricately woven and braided linen thread. The knots echo the nautical knots on the tugboats that Tawney watched from her riverfront studio in lower Manhattan. In 1957, following extensive travels in Europe and North Africa, she took a studio at Coenties Slip in lower Manhattan, where she shared a rooftop with fellow artists Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin (with whom she was particularly close), James Rosenquist, and Jack Youngerman. Through extensive travels to Bolivia and Peru as well as Japan, Thailand, and India, Tawney continued her practice, often inspired by works that she saw. The title But dwindled to a starwas given to the sculpture by Tawney after it resurfaced in 1991, 15 years after she stored it and other works with her friend artist Toshiko Takaezu before leaving for India.
Provenance:
But dwindled to a star has an interesting history. In 1976, when Tawney was evicted from her studio on Wooster Street in New York City, she sent a group of 48 works, including this sculpture, to be stored at the home of her artist friend Toshiko Takaezu, professor of ceramics at Princeton University, before embarking on a year’s stay in India. On her return, Tawney moved to Pennsylvania and did not retrieve her stored works until 1991. The work remained in her collection until her death.