A retrospective on her work at the Museum of Arts and Design cements her in the canon

Signe from 1967, donated to the Museum of Art and Design by renowned textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen, who had also included the piece in MoMA?s 1969 exhibition Wall Hangings.

Four years after the publication of her book String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art, curator Elissa Auther found herself working at the Museum of Arts and Design. Her book covered the pioneering midcentury artists who ?set the stage for how fiber is used in contemporary art,? artists like Françoise Grossen, who was born in Switzerland and has lived and worked in New York since the 1960s. MAD, as it just so happens, has several of Grossen?s large-format pieces in its permanent collection?all but forgotten by the public since fiber art went out of fashion three-plus decades ago. Auther knew exactly how to fill an empty spot on the exhibition calendar once she arrived at her new post, and called Grossen to participate in the museum?s ?Point of View? series, in which a chosen designer curates pieces of the museum?s collection ?as it pertains to their own artistic practice.?

The meat of what?s on display comprises seven sinew-y, earthy rope sculptures made by Grossen in the 1960s and ?70s, including four wall hangings of the type featured in MoMA?s seminal exhibition from 1969. That show, curated by Grossen?s former boss, Jack Lenor Larsen, paired the young ...