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Object Timeline

-0001

1996

  • We acquired this object.

  • Work on this object began.

2013

2014

2024

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Textile, Cloned Line

This is a Textile. It was designed by Lewis Knauss and woven by Philadelphia College of Textiles. It is dated 1996 and we acquired it in 1996. Its medium is cotton and its technique is two intercrossed plain weave structures (double cloth), jacquard controlled. It is a part of the Textiles department.

The Visiting Artists Jacquard Project at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science (1993–95) paired 10 artists with student technicians and the latest digital jacquard technology: a Somet Jacquard System with a Staubli head. The intent was to stretch the students’ understanding of the capabilities of the new technology through the artists’ experimentations, each driven by different aesthetic concerns.
In building his fiber constructions, artist Lewis Knauss often uses repetition of action to capture the passage of time intrinsic in landscape. For this digital work, Knauss began by drawing a line directly on the computer screen, drawing variations, and working with scale. He then began experimenting with the repeat. While there were no limits to the vertical length of the design, the horizontal repeat was only 14 inches. When he realized that the line would “wrap” when it hit the edge of the repeat, he began to to exploit this limitation. The original lines multiplied in number along the length, so that the cloth shifts from nearly all white at one end to nearly all black at the other. While Cloned Line is very technical, like Knauss’s handmade constructions, it is a meditation on line as landscape—the mark of the rake or the plough.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. Florence Matthews, Mrs. Edward Stern, Mrs. Calvin Stillman, and W. & J. Sloane.

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Its dimensions are

H x W: 408.9 x 132.1 cm (13 ft. 5 in. x 52 in.)

Cite this object as

Textile, Cloned Line; Designed by Lewis Knauss (American, b. 1947); Woven by Philadelphia College of Textiles; USA; cotton; H x W: 408.9 x 132.1 cm (13 ft. 5 in. x 52 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. Florence Matthews, Mrs. Edward Stern, Mrs. Calvin Stillman, and W. & J. Sloane; 1996-105-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18652605/ |title=Textile, Cloned Line |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=22 December 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>