Art Institute of Chicago

Mourning

Michael Olszewski

1989

Attribution

Michael Olszewski (American, b. 1950) United States

Medium

Silk, plain weave, pleated; appliquéd with layers of silk, plain weaves, some resist dyed, some printed, some dyed; embroidered with silk; blocked

Physical dimensions

52.4 × 71.8 × 0.7 cm (20 5/8 × 28 1/4 × 1/4 in.); 74.5 × 94.2 × 5.3 cm (29 5/16 × 37 1/16 × 2 1/16 in.)

Credit line

Purchased with funds provided by the Textile Society

From the museum

Olszewski's textile constructions, for the most part, evoke emotional turnoil resulting from his life, such as the deaths of parents and friends and his long-term struggle with personal identity. the works in this group were made from 1989 to 2012, and there is a remarkable consistency of purpose and focus among them, despite technical adjustments made over time. Mourning , the earliest in the group, acknowledges the toll taken by the declining health of the artist's father, who died a few years after the work was created. In Olszewski's language of symbols, the curved motif evokes an emotional would and the horizontal stripes suggest the lines of the journal kept by the artist.

Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0