Diane Itter - Design New York Thursday, June 8, 2023 | Phillips

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  • A standout in the field of fiber art and textile design of the 1970s, Diane Itter’s work remains an important technical and visual contribution to the contemporary studio art world. In comparison to the large-scale fiber work of her contemporaries, such as Sheila Hicks and Francoise Grossen, Itter’s work exists on a miniature scale, featuring brightly colored threads intricately hand-knotted into sophisticated patterns. The New York Times, reviewing her sold-out 1989 show at Heller Gallery described them: “Their smallness makes them intimate; their shapes are evocative and nostalgic; the geometric patterns seem universal; the colors are delectable, and there are little secrets and mysteries to be discovered.”

     

    “Their smallness makes them intimate; their shapes are evocative and nostalgic; the geometric patterns seem universal; the colors are delectable, and there are little secrets and mysteries to be discovered.”
    —Lisa Hammel, in The New York Times, April 6, 1989


    Since 1974, Itter exclusively worked with vividly dyed linen thread and a single type of half-hitch knot, entwining over 400 knots per square inch. In describing her process, she stated: "I view my work as studies or fragments, parts of some greater whole as yet undiscovered. For me the excitement evolves as I work on the pieces - there is no planning involved and the pieces are always open to change.”


    Having died just after her forty-third birthday, Itter’s short career is punctuated by a small and finite body of work executed with such precision it leaves no successors. Works by Diane Itter are held in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among many others.

    • Provenance

      Thea Petschek Iervolino, New York

    • Literature

      Janet Koplos, "The Knot as Brush Stroke: Diane Itter's Fiber Paintings," American Craft, February 1980, p. 20 for a similar example
      Lisa Hammel, "Complex Textile Miniatures and Spare Sculptures," The New York Times, April 6, 1989, mentioned p. C6

Property from a Private Collection, Philadelphia

43

"Winter's Web"

1989
Knotted linen.
Work: 18 x 8 1/4 in. (45.7 x 21 cm)
Framed: 19 x 25 x 1 5/8 in. (48.3 x 63.5 x 4.1 cm)

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for $1,905

Contact Specialist

Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist
Associate Head of Sale
bgreen@phillips.com
+1 917 207 9090

Design

New York Auction 8 June 2023