- Artist or Maker
- Kay Sekimachi
United States, California, San Francisco, active California, Berkeley, born 1926 - Title
- Wall hanging
- Date Made
- 1959
- Medium
- Cotton, rayon, wool, jute, wood
- Dimensions
- Textile Structure: 62 × 21 1/2 in. (157.48 × 54.61 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2020.140
- Collecting Area
- Decorative Arts and Design
- Curatorial Notes
Kay Sekimachi is a towering figure of California fiber, a master of both traditional weaving techniques and experimental fiber constructions. Born in San Francisco to Japanese immigrants, Sekimachi and her family were sent to internment camps during World War II. After the war, Sekimachi studied weaving with Trude Guermonprez, who taught experimental techniques and complex structures such as double weaves. Guermonprez had studied weaving in Germany with several Bauhaus alumni and brought that influence to California when she moved to the state in 1949. This 1959 neutrally-toned wall hanging is Sekimachi’s most sophisticated geometric design from the 1950s, her first decade of weaving. Sekimachi recalls that its composition was inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian, but it also resembles the skillful interlocking designs of other Bauhaus weavers such as Gunta Stölzl, Benita Otte, and Anni Albers, whose work Sekimachi may have known through Guermonprez. Sekimachi used the warp brocade technique, adding supplemental warps to create the complex geometries.
Bobbye Tigerman, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2020
- Selected Bibliography
- Savig, Mary, editor. State Fairs: Growing American Craft. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2025.
