This book features When This You See..., a 1996-99 series of thirty-one embroidered samplers by contemporary American artist Elaine Reichek. Traditionally, samplers framed truisms, homilies, and lessons within decorative patterns and motifs. Reichek replaces these familiar sayings with witty combinations of quotations from mythology, literature, science, art history, and popular culture. Most of the quotations relate to the arts of weaving, knitting, or embroidery. The astonishing results operate on myriad levels: as social critique, as commentary on the relations between the sexes, as a challenge to the traditional definitions of art itself. Punctuating the sequence of samplers are embroideries inspired by works of modernism or contemporary art that resonate with Reichek's themes; with her renditions of these works, Reichek challenges the austerity of "high" art with humor and sophistication.

When This You See...

Arts & Photography

Frankel, David

Reichek, Elaine

History & Criticism

George Braziller, Inc.

For At Home and in the World, her exhibition at the Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Elaine Reichek explores and innovates on the tradition of the sampler--a didactic tool used in learning embroidery that can often be a work of art in itself--by recasting works of visual art--including pieces by Georges Seurat, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Jenny Holzer, and Barbara Krueger--as well as literary quotations--from Moby Dick, Ovid, Tennyson, Kierkegaard, Woolf and A.S. Byatt, among others--into the form of samplers. Working in a subversive postmodern tradition that includes both the artwork of Raymond Pettibon and the literary essays of Susan Howe, Reichek rereads high art through the prism of domestic craft, challenging the patriarchal and modernist assumptions that still permeate our culture. Uniquely and cleverly designed, this volume documents Reichek's work in full color.

At Home and in the World

Cooke, Lynne

Decorative Arts & Design

Societe des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles

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Books by Reichek, Elaine