Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs

Building the Essentials:

ERNE JACOBS

Building the

Essentials:

Ferne Jacobs

Detail of Dwelling, 1984

2

BUILDING THE ESSENTIALS: FERNE JACOBS

Contents

06

34

56

68

Connected Cells, Breathing Forms

Exhibition Checklist

Artist CV

About Craft in America

CRAFT IN AMERICA

3

Dwelling, 1984

4


Untitled, 1966

CRAFT IN AMERICA

5

Connected Cells,

Breathing Forms

6


“When I start it’s a color, a size, and I see a shape… I just start

playing with the line and then I make a connection…and then

suddenly I am in that piece. And we are having a relationship. I

never know what it’s going to look like until it gets done.”

Ferne Jacobs has been at the forefront of the revolution in

fiber art since the 1960s. She has pioneered the formation of a

new category of sculpture. Transforming materials and pushing

boundaries, she builds solid structures with coiled, twined, and

knotted thread. This exhibition is the first to survey more than

fifty years of Jacobs’ pivotal and timeless artwork from 1966

through the present.

Jacobs has lived and practiced in Echo Park for most of her life,

yet she has rarely exhibited in Los Angeles. As such, this exhibition

is a homecoming. Like countless other artists working in

Southern California during this era and prior to recent shifts in

the art world, most of her work migrated to galleries, collections,

and museums in New York, the East Coast, and other parts of

the country. She is among the leading artists who have shaped

the national fiber movement that has flourished in California

over many decades, having national and international influence.

This gathering of work reflects Jacobs’ overall artistic evolution

and highlights her unrelenting search for meaning in form, color,

and process.

Early on in her career, Jacobs studied at Art Center College of

Design and she took painting at Pratt Institute, but the sensory

aspects of fiber, including smell and touch, were what really

stoked her interest. After a first weaving class at Barnsdall Art

Park in the early 1960s, she built a self-made fiber education

by seeking out classes and personally connecting with leading

artists and teachers. In 1965, she took a workshop in San Diego

with Arline Fisch, whom she credits with truly teaching her to

CONNECTED CELLS, BREATHING FORMS 7

weave expressively. Fisch suggested Jacobs continue with Mary

Jane Leland at California State University, Long Beach, which

deepened her technical understanding. While there, Jacobs

learned about Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, where she

went on to work with Olga de Amaral in 1967, and to meet Jack

Lenor Larsen, among others.

One early success occurred when Jacobs’ rug (fig. 1) with

abstract landscape imagery was selected for inclusion in the

1968 landmark multimedia exhibition, California Design 10.

Woven on a loom when she was at California State University,

Long Beach, Jacobs exuberantly integrated color, pattern, and

texture. Although her subsequent work would deviate far from

this early exploratory woven piece, it reflected an enthusiastic

awakening to what would become her medium.

With a base in weaving, Jacobs sought to learn off-loom and

three-dimensional techniques and she began to experiment

with sculptural pieces (fig. 6). Artists Joan Austin, Neda Al-Hilali,

and Dominic Di Mare, who became one of her closest lifelong

friends, further opened the floodgates for Jacobs’ independent

exploration of dimensional fiber. Meeting Lenore Tawney in the

mid 1970s, whom Jacobs had admired deeply for many years,

was the beginning of a profound friendship and creative connection.

From the moment she learned to coil, from a worksheet shared

by a student attending a workshop taught by her friend Joan

Austin, she found a channel for expression that has become a

lifelong journey, spanning more than five decades thus far.

Austin was instrumental in researching basket-making and advancing

the contemporary processes for three-dimensional fiber.

Unlike the warp-restrictions of twining and other weaving processes,

coiling offered unlimited potential for expansion, color

8


fig 1.

Rug, 1968


fig 2.

Mesas, 1974

10


changes, and it allowed Jacobs to generate hard forms.

Constructed from stiff rows of thousands of individual knots and

capped by soft plumes of wool, the monumental tableau Mesas

(fig. 2) was made when Jacobs was breaking into her own fiber

language and moving between two and three dimensions in the

mid 1970s. The piece is related to a series that Jacobs created as

she was beginning her MFA at Claremont. She had been accepted

into the program even though she had not technically completed

her BFA. She knew by then who she was as an artist and

that she had to make the art that is deepest to her nature.

A small arch (fig. 5) made in 1975 was an important shift in

Jacobs’ development and her ability to innovate with curvature,

structure, and shape with thread. After discovering her new

approach, Jacobs created a number of graceful totemic and

vessel forms during the late 1970s and 1980s with natural or

black thread tightly coiled to provide solidity and structure. In a

1979 Fiberarts review, Betty Park wrote, “the variegations in the

natural tones of the linen appear like strata in rock, becoming

another imprint of time.” Some of these have understated marks

and symbols woven within, while other pieces are pierced by

openings that are carved out. These apertures in Jacobs’ words,

“make room for something to come in.” She constructed clean

lines achieved through methodical precision and intense focus.

Each piece is a product of Jacobs’ intent to find grounding in

slowness. She builds coil by coil to form a cellular structure.

Shadow Figure (figs. 3 and 4), a sizable and strong floor sculpture,

was made from 1976-77 during a period of personal chaos.

Jacobs envisioned it as a looming shadow that was always with

her. Row by row, and with each coil, Shadow Figure embodies

steady consistency and meditative repetition. It reflects the

need to pull oneself together and seek a sense of order and

calm. Throughout her practice, Jacobs is drawn to examine what


fig 3.

Shadow Figure,

1976-1977

fig 4.

Detail of

Shadow Figure

12



fig 5.

Untitled, 1975

14


fig 6.

Untitled 1 & 2,

ca. 1968


exists and lurks in the shadows of our society. Her work is about

giving shape to the forces and factors we cannot see, whether

natural, metaphysical, or human-driven.

Over time, Jacobs increasingly embraced abstract figurative

sculpture in her work. Solitude (fig. 8), animated by a twisting,

bulging upper portion, was the last pure vessel that Jacobs

created with an enclosed bottom base. Her appreciation of the

sacredness of objects from various cultures and traditions, and

the metaphorical qualities of the container as a fundamental

and universal form, guides her work and imbues it with its own

spiritual and timeless power.

By the mid 1980s, she was merging sturdy coiling together with

twining, which provided a softer textural feel. Her work became

less rigidly geometric and more curvilinear (fig. 11). Jacobs’ deep

interest in finding the core of her feminine soul moved to the

forefront. Streaks of red stream through pieces from this period.

Two large floor sculptures, Serpentine Figure and Spiral Bone,

initiate a dialogue about the nature of masculine and feminine

consciousness. They relate to Jacobs’ interest in religion, biblical

representations of gender, the snake’s role in the Garden of Eden,

and ultimately, her desire to define what the feminine is, on

her own terms.

Although Jacobs has always let her pieces emerge intuitively,

she maintains total control over her material. She holds the

balance of tension as she makes each coil, wrapping methodically

and steadily with rhythmic regularity. She constantly invents

new challenges for herself that require a complete investment

of her energy. Veil (fig. 7) is a masterpiece at over 7 feet, a

tubular technical accomplishment that was one of Jacobs’ most

challenging pieces to execute. It drapes down the wall as an

open portal. Rather than concealing and obscuring identity, this

monumental piece asserts an inherent strength.

16


fig 7.

Veil, 1996

fig 8.

Solitude,

1985-1986


fig 9.

Interior Passages,

2016

18


Jacobs moved in a new direction in the early 2000s towards

openness, undulating appendages, and dazzling color. Over

these two decades, Jacobs left the confinement of traditional

vessels behind. Her 3D sculptures stand their own ground.

They stretch and unfurl as open-ended beings with the interior

of each piece just as visible as the exterior. Sculptural wall

pieces are dynamic and free flowing. Each piece begins as the

evolution of a line and Jacobs then lets it develop organically.

She only thinks about her next step. The rest is a lengthy and

extended process of improvisation and natural development

that lasts months.

The subtle and rich variations of color in her large rippled wall

sculpture, Waterfall, mark the beginning of Jacobs’ use of polychromatic

threads of color. Jacobs created vibrant pieces such

as Flight (figs. 12 and 13) and Collar (figs. 19 and 20), by taking

apart existing thread and replying the strands to make new color

combinations. She credits artist Kate Anderson for the idea,

which expanded her color palette almost infinitely.

In contrast, solid black pieces were a direct response to the last

few years of political turmoil, violence, death, isolation, and

social destruction. Two Angels (fig. 10), a wall sculpture which is

capped by intertwined figures engaged in struggle, marked the

start of this dark period. Jacobs honed in on black as absolute,

simple, and without variation. It was a time in which Jacobs was

absorbing how, “so much energy was spinning into such

negative outcomes.”

From these recent years came Interior Passages (fig. 9), a web

of scarlet arteries and veins that is a glimpse under the surface

into what powers us within. Always seeking light in darkness,

Jacobs created vibrant Transparent Sunlight (fig. 14), a compact,


fig 10.

Two Angels,

2015

20


fig 11.

Red Wave,

1988-1989


fig 12.

Detail of Flight

22


fig 13.

Flight, 2011

fig 14.

Transparent

Sunlight, 2016


fig 15.

Drawing Books,

1971-2019

fig 16.

Drawing Books,

1971-2019

24


contained bundle of shavings from the sun. She has focused on

a consideration of the larger, complex systems beyond human

control that keep everything running. “There are processes in

the world that will always be there whether we are there or not.”

She constructed her most recent piece, the skeletal Whispering

Whale (fig. 18), during the height of the pandemic, out of

increased concern about the environment and species loss. In

particular, she wanted to speak to the critical problems she felt

are being ignored. “The work is not about issues in the world per

se, but of course, I am affected by them. The work has more to

do with a mystery that I relate with when I am working, and just

hoping that when each piece is complete, that it feels alive, that

it has ‘breath’.”

The exhibition includes Jacobs’ intimate drawings (figs. 15 and

16) and collage diaries (fig. 17), which have never been publicly

displayed before. This imagery provides an additional revelatory

lens into her vision, inspiration, and philosophical perspective.

Jacobs creates psychological drawings, depicting her subconscious,

and they are filled with Jungian symbolism. The serpent

or snake, bird, and fish are central figures that fill these pages,

forming narratives that sometimes extend for several pages.

Whereas her drawing books are more personal and often stem

from her dreams and subconsciousness, collage is an outlet

through which Jacobs witnesses and charts time. She depicts

her worldview and her responses to what is happening in society.

Jacobs is recognized for her technical mastery of material and

process. Reinventing and advancing traditional techniques used

for basketry, and inventing countless other methods along the

way, Jacobs has generated an entirely fresh format for sculptural

art. Her acute sense of color melded with her poetic and

intuitive approach are characteristic traits. Each piece begins


26


fig 17.

Collage Diaries,

2004-2018


with an idea, a dream, a story, or a picture in Jacobs’ mind, but it

grows and takes on its own form over the months in which she

shapes the artwork.

Jacobs plays with duality in terms of textures, contrast of color,

interior and exterior, solids and voids. In terms of concept, she

investigates the significance of masculinity and femininity, spirituality

and religion, and the destruction of the natural world. She

seeks strength in softness and beauty in slowness. Each piece,

with individual threads forming a cellular network, is filled with

her devoted focus and imbued with powerful energy. Her pieces

are meditations on the fiber of society and the nature of humanity

in the modern world.

“When I begin a piece, I create a line by wrapping thread around

a cord, with a color that has been in my mind. From then on I live

in a mystery, creating each cell (wrap) and connection, of what

I hope is a living form. The cells make up a body, and I have no

idea about what it will become until it is finished. There is no

direct intention, only a hope that it has life and through that, is

moving in some way.”

__________________________________________________________

*Based on:

Interviews with Ferne Jacobs, 2020-2022

Artist statement, 2015

Oral history interview with Ferne Jacobs, 2005 August 30-31,

Archives of American Art

28


fig 18.

Detail of

Whispering Whale,

2021-22


fig 19.

Collar, 2005

30


fig 20.

Detail of Collar


Origins,

2017-2018

32



Exhibition

Checklist

34 BUILDING THE ESSENTIALS: FERNE JACOBS

EARLIEST WORKS

Untitled, 1966

Various threads

48 x 5 ½“

Collection of the artist

Untitled 1 & 2, 1968

Various threads

68 x 7 x 4“ & 48 x 5 x 3”


Rug, 1968

Various threads

4 x 7’


EARLY VESSELS

Rainbow Basket, 1971

Knotted and wrapped nylon, straw,

various threads, shells, bead

6” diameter

Collection of Livia Lewin

Untitled, 1973

Knotted waxed linen thread, various

threads, porcupine quills

6” high

Collection of Patsy Krebs

FLAT KNOTTED SERIES

Mesas, 1974

Knotted, rayon, straw, wool roving,

various threads

50 x 40 ½“


EXHIBITION CHECKLIST 35


Installation view



Spiral Bone,

1990-1991


“I stand for the feminine.

I want her to have power.

She can break with tradition.”

Detail of

Waterfall,

2000-2001

1970s FORMS & TOTEMS

Untitled, 1975

Coiled waxed linen

7” high

Collection of David and Katherine

Hensley

Untitled, 1976

Coiled waxed polyester

25 x 4 ½ x 3”

Collection of David and Katherine

Hensley

Shadow Figure, 1976-1977

Coiled thread

61 x 11 ¼”


Untitled, 1977

Coiled waxed linen

33 ½ x 7 ½ x 3”

Collection of Alan Mandell

40


41


The Round,

2007-2008


1980s CONTAINER FORMS

The Curl Has a Voice, 1983

Coiled waxed linen

3 ¾ x 6 ½“

Collection of Naomi Roth

Dwelling, 1984

Coiled and twined waxed linen thread

8 ½ x 7 x 4”

Collection of Alan Mandell

Solitude, 1985-1986


3 ¾ x 6 ½ x 17 ”

Collection of Patsy Krebs

Red Wave, 1988-1989


10 x 6 x 9”

Collection of Karen Frederick

LARGE SCALE WORK

Serpent Figure, 1989-1990


42 x 11 x 22 ½”


Spiral Bone, 1990-1991


44 x 13 x 16”

Collection of Joan Borinstein

Veil, 1996


87 ¾ x 7 x 4”

Collection of Eileen Kurahashi


Rainbow

Basket, 1971


“Black is just what it is,

it’s black. It’s simplest

and the purest.”


Waterfall, 2000-2001

Coiled and twined waxed

linen thread

95” x 26” x 4”

Collection of Tom Grotta

POLYCHROMATIC 2000s

Collar, 2005

Coiled waxed linen thread

18 x 13 ½ x 11 ½”

Collection of Edward Lenkin

Floating World, 2007


16 ½ x 12 x 9”


The Round, 2007-2008


21 x 16 x 13”


Flight, 2011


16 x 20 x 13”


BLACK RECENT WORK

Two Angels, 2015


linen thread

28 x 14 x 6”


Figure/Head, 2020


linen thread

13 x 7 x 9”




Waterfall,

2000-2001

RECENT WORK

Interior Passages, 2016


linen thread

45 x 16 x 4”


Transparent Sunlight, 2016


linen thread

10 x 8 x 6”

Collection of Kay Sekimachi

Origins, 2017-2018


linen thread

51 x 17 ½ x 4”


Whispering Whale, 2021-22


linen and various threads

70 x 12 x 2 ½”


BOOKS

Drawing Books, 1971-2019


Collage Diaries, 2004-2018



50

Detail of

Two Angels,

2015

“My life has been about

finding a relationship

with my feminine soul.

Men have defined what

the feminine is, but I

want to define it, for me.”



Installation View



Drawing Books,

1971-2019


Artist CV


(Born 1942 in Chicago, Illinois; lives and works in Los Angeles, California)

EDUCATION

1976 M.F.A. Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA

1965-71 Studied with Arline Fisch, Mary Jane Leland, Dominic Di

Mare, Olga de Amaral, Neda Al-Hilali

1964–65 Pratt Institute, Painting, New York, NY

1960–63 Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA

HONORS & AWARDS

1995 Named a Fellow of the College of Fellows, American Craft

Council

1991 Artist in Residence at La Napoule Art Foundation,

La Napoule, France

1973 &1977 National Endowments for the Arts Fellowship

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American Art,

Washington D.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA

The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY

Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI

Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, MI Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA

Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020, 2012, 2008, 1998, 1994 Nancy Margolis Gallery

1999, 1995, 1992, 1989 Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, Detroit, MI

1996 Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

1991 Recent Fiber Sculpture, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY

1983 Miller/Brown Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1980 Ferne Jacobs, Fiber Work and Drawings, a Retrospective Exhibit of

ARTIST CV 57

Untitled, 1977

Detail of Interior

Passages, 2016


ARTIST CV 59

10 Years Work, Rex W. Wigmall, Museum Gallery, Chaffey

Community College, Alta Loma, CA

1977 Hadler/Rodriguez Galleries, New York, NY

1972 Galleria del Sol, Santa Barbara, CA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015 Extreme Fibers, Muskegon Art Museum, Muskegon, MI, & Dennos

Art Center, Traverse, MI

2013 Repetition & Ritual, New Sculpture in Fiber, The Hudgens Center

for the Arts, Duluth, GA

2011 All Things Considered IV, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA

Golden State of Craft: California 1960–1985, Craft and Folk Art

Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2009 High Fiber, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery,

Washington D.C.

2005 Intertwined, Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David

Lieberman Collection, ASU Art Museum, Arizona State University,

Tempe, AZ

2004 Fiber Biennial 2004, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA

2003 California Looms: Wove & Constructed, Craft and Folk Art

Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Generations/Transformations: American Fiber Art, American

Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA

Grand Opening Exhibition, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI

2002 Los Angeles Artists/Los Angeles Collectors: Contemporary

Baskets, Los Angeles International Airport

Coming of Age, Mint Museum of Art/Craft and Design,

Charlotte, NC

Escape from the Vault: The Contemporary Museum’s Collection

Breaks Out, Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI

Fiber Arts Today, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA

Threads on the Edge, a selection of works from the Daphne Farago

Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA

2000 Miniatures: 2000, Helen Drutt, Philadelphia, PA

1999 The Art of Fiber, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY

1997 Vessels, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA

Contemporary Art Basket, Ohio Crafts Museum, Columbus, OH

1996 Life Work - Individual Expression in Fiber, El Camino College Art

Gallery, Torrance, CA

1995 Fiber: Five Decades, American Craft Museum, New York, NY

Arduous Happiness, Santa Monica College Art Gallery, S.M., CA

1993 Linen, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY


Untitled,

1973

ARTIST CV 61


Figure/Head,

2020

1992 Fiber Art - New Directions for the Nineties, Manchester Institute

of Arts and Sciences, NH

Sensibilities: Substance and Surface, Biada Art Gallery, Mount St.

Mary’s College, Los Angeles, CA

Four Artists Reflect 1971–1991, The Society for Contemporary

Crafts, Pittsburgh, PA

Craft Today USA, organized by the American Craft Museum, NY

1988 Up From L.A., Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA

Frontiers in Fiber: The Americans, organized by the North Dakota

Museum of Art (traveling exhibition through Japan, Korea, and

mainland China)

Basketry ‘88 / Evolution into Sculpture, Wita Gardiner Gallery,

San Diego, CA

Material Images: 15 Fiber Artists, Bowling Green State University,

Bowling Green, OH

1987 The Modern Basket: A Redefinition, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts,

Pittsburgh, PA

The Eloquent Object, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK

Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York, NY

1986 Fiber Re/Evolution, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI

1985 Textile Constructs, California State University at Northridge,

Northridge, CA

1984 American Basket Forms, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT

American Craft Traditions, San Francisco International Airport, CA

1982 Tradition in New Form, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

Other Baskets, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO

1981 Made in L.A., Contemporary Crafts ‘81, Craft and Folk Art Museum,

Los Angeles, CA

Old Traditions / New Directions, The Textile Museum,

Washington D.C.

Beyond Tradition: 25th Anniversary Exhibition of the American

Craft Museum, NY

Fabrications, Riverside Art Center and Museum, Riverside, CA

Mandell Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1980 The Contemporary Basket Maker, Purdue University,

West Lafayette, IN

Opening Invitational Exhibition, Greenwood Gallery,

Washington D.C.

Elizabeth Fortner Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

1979 The Basket-Maker’s Art, The Elements Gallery, New York, NY

Recap - Anderson Ranch, Visual Arts Center, Aspen, CO

Intimate Statements, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Art Renewal Show I, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,

ARTIST CV 63

Los Angeles, CA

1977 Fiber Works, an International Invitational, Cleveland Museum of

Art, Cleveland, OH

1976 California Design ‘76, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA

American Crafts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

California Women in Crafts, Craft and Folk Art Museum,

Los Angeles, CA

1975 Opening Exhibition of the Hadler Galleries, New York, NY

1974 First World Crafts Exhibition, Ontario Science Center, Toronto,

Canada

First International Exhibition of Miniature Textiles, British Crafts

Centre, London, England 1973

Fiber Works, Lang Art Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

1972 Sculpture in Fiber, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Fiber

Structures, The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

Fiber Art by American Artists, Ball State University, Muncie, IN


Floating World,

2007

ARTIST CV 65


ARTIST CV 67

About Us


Craft in America is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts

organization founded in 2004 with the mission to promote

and advance original handcrafted work through programs

in all media. The Peabody Award-winning, Emmy-nominated

Craft in America documentary series first aired nationally

on PBS in 2007 and has produced twenty-seven hour-long

episodes to date. These programs are filled with artists,

techniques, and stories from diverse cultures, blending history

with living practice.

In addition to the series, Craft in America’s organizational

efforts include extensive websites (pbs.org/craftinamerica

and craftinamerica.org), a YouTube channel www.youtube.

com/user/craftinamerica), multi-disciplinary educator

guides that adhere to national standards, and the Craft in

America Center in Los Angeles. All of Craft in America’s

multimedia educational content is provided to the public at

no charge.

ABOUT CRAFT IN AMERICA 69

This catalog was published in conjunction

with the exhibition:

Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs

on view at the Craft in America Center,

Los Angeles, CA

April 2, 2022 – June 18, 2022

Curated by Emily Zaiden

This exhibition was supported by funding

from the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation.

Copyright 2022

Craft in America

8415 West 3rd Street

Los Angeles, CA 90048

www.craftinamerica.org

ISBN: 978-1-7923-9391-4

Printed in Los Angeles

Designed by Peggy Luk

Written by Emily Zaiden

Photography by Madison Metro

Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs

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