Textile, Embossed Stainless Steel

Embossed Stainless Steel was designed by Reiko Sudo, one of Japan’s most important contemporary textile designers. Educated at Musashino Art University, she and Junichi Arai were the co-founders in 1984 of the Japanese company and store, NUNO, which produces textiles of extraordinary ingenuity and beauty. Sudo and the other designers at NUNO combine tradition and advanced technologies with remarkable creativity, which led them to the forefront of textile design field.
Embossed Stainless Steel, designed in 1990, is made exactly like Stainless Steel Gloss; the polyester filament of the textile has been woven, calendar pressed, and spatter-plated with stainless steel. In this piece, however, an additional embossing step has been added after the spatter-plating to create a semi-transparent fabric with a textured surface. This unusual combination of an automobile manufacturing process with textiles makes this series of stainless steel textile very distinctive.
This work, together with the six other Japanese textiles proposed for acquisition, will begin to establish a strong core of contemporary textiles, an area specifically targeted for acquisition. They reflect some of the best textiles made during the late 20th century. Studying these textiles will add to an understanding of not only current Japanese technology but also of long-standing textile traditions in Japan.

Textile, Embossed Stainless Steel; Manufactured by Kanebo Spinning Co., Ltd.; Japan; polyester filament, stainless steel coating; Warp x Weft: 1282.7 x 114.9 cm (42 ft. 1 in. x 45 1/4 in.); Gift of The Museum of Modern Art, courtesy of the designer; 2002-17-4