Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry between Paris and New York

K. L. H. Wells Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry between Paris and New York New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. 280 pp.; 59 color ills.; 45 b/w ills. Cloth $59.00 (9780300232592). With Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry between Paris and New York, author K. L. H. Wells, associate professor of American art and architecture at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, proposes a reassessment of modernism’s relationship to decoration through an examination of modernist tapestries produced after World War II. Wells asserts that the indeterminate positioning of tapestry as a French luxury craft with “masculine prestige” gave it a “privileged position within postwar modernism,” a position attributable to its being “both elite and marginal” (6–7). Over four chapters, Wells considers the prevalence of postwar tapestries and the way in which tapestry expanded the audience for modern art. She clearly situates her understanding of tapestry, but the broad usage of the term in the postwar era (and even to the present day) remains somewhat confounding. Although Wells might have examined in greater detail the imprecise application of a specific technical term and the way in which it aligns with her argument about marketing modernism, overall Weaving Modernism makes a significant contribution to American modern art scholarship and builds on a growing body of writing meant to expand and nuance narratives of modernity and postmodernity.