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Art Institute of Chicago

Circus and Slapstick

Ethel Stein

1996

Attribution
Ethel Stein (American, 1917-2018) United States
Medium
One of six panels configured into a cube: cotton, plain weave, double cloth; woven on a loom with a drawloom attachment fabricated by the artist
Physical dimensions
96.5 × 95.2 cm (38 × 37 1/2 in.)
Credit line
Gift of Ethel Stein
CATALOGUE RECORD

Museum metadata is available under CC0. Image availability and rights are separate; consult the source record.

Source rights statement: © Ethel Stein

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From the museum

In the mid-1990s Stein started to weave double cloth. She wanted to continue the theme of the color grids woven in series in 1995, but she didn’t know an effective way to show both sides of each weaving. One day driving home she saw an outdoor sign supported by a cubic framework, a structure made in Germany for store displays. She obtained one and made these six double-cloth panels to fit. One panel, featuring a splatter of color, stands apart from the rest. Stein tried to create a suitable splatter pattern by breaking egg after egg in the bathtub, but the effect was never right. Ultimately the splatter pattern used came from her imagination.

Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0

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