Lewis Knauss
“Recording Time” May 1 - June 13, 2021
“My interest in landscape originated during my first teaching appointment in Ohio. Feeling disconnected, I was suddenly struck with nostalgia for the fields of Macungie, Pennsylvania, where I was born, and I became increasingly conscious of the importance of place in our lives. The textures and materials of textiles provided a medium to explore my memories of place."
Initially, I used the simple graphics of a plowed field or memories of a mountainside near my parents’ home as sources for my imagery. Recently, the mountains of Colorado and the desert and woodlands of the South-west have become most important to my work. From my earliest visits, I began to realize that placing yourself into the vast landscape of the West required time and careful attention. You could not walk unaware of your surroundings. Noticing changes over time and paying attention to details of the landscape allowed one to be part of it – situating oneself by being totally present and then appreciating its silences. I have translated the time spent paying attention into my process and the labor of making; the silence is contained in the meditations that allow these works to happen."
– Lewis Knauss
From of his youth in rural Macungie, Pennsylvania, an impulsive trip to Egypt, months-long stays in New Mexico and Cape Cod, to his home in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, recollection of place is Mr. Knauss’ subject matter. He states being “increasingly conscious of how we create feelings of comfort from familiar places, the textile medium became my medium for expressing ideas about the importance of landscape.”
Winter fields, summer grasses, accumulations of reeds after a storm, and the scarring of a fire-charred landscape are points of inspiration for Knauss’ work. Using natural materials along with paint, beads, and wire, his meditative weavings are a visual diary of changing environments on a micro scale. Like the repeated walks that inspired them, his process of assembly is a time consuming one. Through intricately woven fibers, barely perceptible, perfectly spaced dots of paint, carefully tied and repeated knots, he patiently manipulates each successive layer, managing the spaces in-between, illuminating them, allowing them to breathe. Knauss transforms bundles of natural materials into intricately complex woven works of art. He notes, “I hope to reward the viewer’s scrutiny with a more intimate awareness of landscape, a reminder that time passes quickly and we should not rush through our lives, unaware of its cycles of destruction and renewal.”
Mr. Knauss received a BA in Art Education from Kutztown University (Kutztown State College) and an MFA in Crafts/Fiber from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Mr Knauss is a Fellow of the American Craft Council, a recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Craft Fellowship, he received a Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Pennsylvania and is Professor Emeritus, Moore College of Art and Design.
Selected collections and exhibition venues: Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania (Fiber Art from the Permanent Collection); Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania (solo exhibit); Society for Contemporary Crafts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Finnish Museum of Art and Design (Wood of the World); Zoellner Arts Center Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Natural Elements: Sculptural Expressions); Museum of Design, Helsinki, Finland; American Craft Museum, New York, New York; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, California (Dorothy Saxe Invitational: New Works/Old Story: 80 Artists at the Passover Table); Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas; Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Ledgers, solo exhibition); Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. (Miniature Fiber Arts, traveling exhibition); Musée des Décoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland (2nd International Exhibition of Miniature Textiles, traveling exhibition).
