Lili Blumenau

American fiber artist

Lili Blumenau

Born| (1912-11-28)November 28, 1912

Berlin, Germany

Died| September 6, 1976(1976-09-06) (aged 63)

Bronx New York

Known for| Textile art

Lili Blumenau (1912–1976) was an American fiber artist. She was a pivotal figure in the development of fiber arts and textile arts, particularly weaving, in the United States during the mid-part of the 20th century.

## Early life and education

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Blumenau was born on November 28, 1912 in Berlin, Germany.[1] Blumenau is a graduate of the Akademie der Künste (Berlin) [de], the Académie scandinave [fr] in Paris, and was the first woman to graduate from the New York School of Textile Technology.[2] She also studied at Black Mountain College.[3]

## Work and career

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After her education, Blumenau went on to become an instructor in several schools in New York City including Columbia University's Teacher's College, where she started a weaving workshop. She founded the weaving department at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Design in 1952.[2] In addition to maintaining her own weaving studio on Tenth Street in Manhattan, she served as the curator of textiles at Cooper Union Museum from 1944 to 1950.[2]

In 1955 Blumenau authored the text The Art and Craft of Hand Weaving, Including Fabric Design,[4] which had a significant impact on her field. This text provided technical details and patterns for loom weaving as well as a conceptual approach to the methodologies of hand weaving as "engaging, fully-human, and life-giving".[2] Her work provided inspiration to the Catholic Worker Movement, a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics to whom she taught weaving to several members at the Peter Maurin Farm.[5] In 1975 Blumenau was awarded Fellow of the Council by the American Craft Council.[6] Blumenau died on September 6, 1976 in the Bronx.[1]

## Collections

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Lili Blumenau's works are in the permanent collection at the Cooper Hewitt Museum[7] and the Museum of Arts and Design.[8]

## References

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1. ^ a b Falino, Jeannine (2011). Crafting modernism: midcentury American art and design: [exhibition Crafting modernism. Midcentury American art and design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, October 11, 2011 - January 15, 2012; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, February 27 - May 21, 2012]. New York: Abrams. p. 270\. ISBN 978-0810984806.
2. ^ a b c d "The Art and Craft of Hand Weaving--Lili Blumenau". Boreal Weaver: An Online Diary. March 11, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
3. ^ Koplos, Janet; Metcalf, Bruce (2010). Makers: a history of American studio craft. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina press. p. 235\. ISBN 9780807834138.
4. ^ Blumenau, Lili (1956). The Art and Craft of Hand Weaving: Including Fabric Design. New York: Crowne Publishers.
5. ^ "Rediscovering the Sacramentality of Things". Boreal Weaver. February 15, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
6. ^ "College of Fellows". American Craft Council. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
7. ^ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Lili Blumenau". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
8. ^ "Casement Cloth". The Museum of Arts and Design. Retrieved 5 December 2023.

## Additional sources

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1. Adams, Alice. "Lili Blumenau." Craft Horizons v.22, no. 2 (March 1962) p.16-20.
2. Blumenau, Lili. "Experiments in Sample Weaving." Craft Horizons v.17, no. 2 ( March 1957) p. 18-22.
3. "Lili Blumenau, 1912-1976." Craft Horizons v.37, no.1 (February 1977) p. 10.

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American Craft Council College of Fellows

Honorary Fellows are listed in italics.

1975|

* Adda Husted Andersen
* Dorothy Meredith
* Ed Rossbach
* Frans Wildenhain
* Harvey Littleton
* Lenore Tawney
* Lili Blumenau
* Peter Voulkos
* Sam Maloof
* Toshiko Takaezu
* Trude Guermonprez
* Florence Eastmead
* Francis Sumner Merritt
* Margaret Patch
* Mary Lyon
* Maurine Roberts
* Rudolph Schaeffer

1976|

* Charles Loloma
* Else Regensteiner
* John Paul Miller
* Karen Karnes
* Laura Anderson
* Ronald Hayes Pearson
* Ruth Penington
* Anna Wetherill Olmsted
* Lloyd Kiva New

1977|

* Alice Kagawa Parrott
* Daniel Rhodes
* Don Reitz
* John Prip
* Mary Caroline Richards
* Ramona Solberg
* Robert C. Turner
* Aileen Osborn Webb

1978|

* Alma Eikerman
* Bob Stocksdale
* Dominick Labino
* Frederick Miller
* Jack Lenor Larsen
* L. Brent Kington
* Mary Walker Phillips
* Rudolf Staffel
* Rudy Autio
* Eugenia Campbell Nowlin

1979|

* Arline Fisch
* George Nakashima
* Gerry Williams
* Hans Christensen
* Katherine Westphal
* Joan Mondale
* Margery Anneberg
* Rose Slivka
* William Brown

1980|

* Bernard Kester
* Joel Myers
* Margret Craver
* Mary Nyburg
* Tage Frid
* Warren MacKenzie
* Eudorah Moore
* Robert W. Gray

1983|

* Douglass Morse Howell
* F. Carlton Ball
* Mary Ann Scherr
* Ruth Duckworth
* Sheila Hicks
* Marian Heard
* Susan Peterson

1985|

* John Mason
* Kay Sekimachi
* Marianne Strengell
* Maurice Heaton
* Richard Thomas
* Ted Randall
* Harold Brennan
* Sydney Butchkes

1986|

* Dale Chihuly
* Kenneth Ferguson
* Wendell Castle

1987|

* Beatrice Wood
* Claire Zeisler
* Dominic Di Mare
* Edward Moulthrop
* Heikki Seppä
* June Schwarcz
* Richard DeVore
* Robert Sperry
* Val Cushing
* Carlyle Smith
* James Wallace
* Jonathan Fairbanks
* LaMar Harrington

1988|

* Albert Green
* Arthur Carpenter
* C. Carl Jennings
* Frances Senska
* Fritz Dreisbach
* Glen Kaufman
* Harrison McIntosh
* Mark Peiser
* Mary Scheier
* James McKinnell
* Nan Bangs McKinnell
* Paul Soldner
* Phillip Fike
* Polly Lada-Mocarski
* Ted Hallman
* Walter G. Nottingham
* William Daley
* C. Malcolm Watkins
* James Melchert
* Lloyd Herman
* Marion Stroud Swingle
* Paul J. Smith
* Rudy Turk

1990|

* Edris Eckhardt
* Frances Higgins
* Francis Whitaker
* Gertrud Natzler
* Lillian Elliott
* Margaret Tafoya
* Michael Higgins
* Otto Heino
* Otto Natzler
* Viktor Schreckengost
* Vivika Heino
* Blanche Reeves
* R. Leigh Glover

1992|

* Cynthia Schira
* David Shaner
* Edgar Anderson
* Joyce Anderson
* James 'Mel' Someroski
* Karl Martz
* Kurt Matzdorf
* Marvin Lipofsky
* Robert Arneson
* Stanley Lechtzin
* Walker Weed
* Helen Drutt English
* Mildred Constantine
* Ruth DeYoung Kohler

1993|

* Betty Woodman
* Gerhardt Knodel
* Jere Osgood
* John Marshall
* Kenneth Price
* Margarete Seeler
* Oppi Untracht
* Robert G. Hart

1994|

* Albert Paley
* Henry Halem
* John McQueen
* Merry Renk
* Patti Warashina
* Robert Ebendorf
* Rude Osolnik
* Stephen De Staebler
* Viola Frey
* Lee Nordness

1995|

* Charles Counts
* Ferne Jacobs
* Fred Fenster
* J. Fred Woell
* Karl Drerup
* Richard Marquis
* Wayne Higby
* Michael Monroe

1996|

* Betty Cooke
* Claude Horan
* Garry Knox Bennett
* Helena Hernmarck
* Jun Kaneko
* Kenneth Bates
* Mark Levine
* Mary Lee Hu
* Jean Griffith
* Virginia Harvey

1997|

* Chunghi Choo
* Jack Earl
* Ka Kwong Hui
* Lia Cook
* Bob Winston
* Ron Nagle
* Tommy Simpson
* William Keyser
* Sandra Blain

1998|

* Dan Dailey
* Edwin Scheier
* Eleanor Moty
* James Bassler
* Judy McKie
* Richard Mawdsley
* Richard Shaw
* William Harper
* Paulus Berensohn

1999|

* Dorothy Barnes
* Helen Shirk
* Irena Brynner
* Nancy Crow
* Paul Marioni
* Ralph Baccera
* Therman Statom
* Fred Marer

2000|

* Adrian Saxe
* Anne Wilson
* Cynthia Bringle
* Eugene Pijanowski
* Hiroko Sato-Pijanowski
* James Krenov
* Joyce Scott
* Marjorie Schick
* Paul Stankard
* Christa C. Mayer Thurman
* Theodore Cohen

2001|

* David Ellsworth
* Gary Noffke
* Joan Livingstone
* John Glick
* Michael James
* Norman Schulman
* Thomas Patti
* Warren Seelig
* Alice Rooney

2002|

* Harlan Butt
* Jane Sauer
* John Cederquist
* Paula Winokur
* Robert Winokur
* Garth Clark

2003|

* Ana Lisa Hedstrom
* James Tanner
* Kurt Weiser
* Norma Minkowitz
* Tom Joyce
* Albert LeCoff

2005|

* Alphonse Mattia
* Flora Mace
* Gary Griffin
* Joey Kirkpatrick
* Linda Threadgill
* Patricia Hickman
* Martha Longenecker

2006|

* Akio Takamori
* Howard Ben Tré
* Jason Pollen
* Kiff Slemmons
* Walter Hamady
* Stuart Kestenbaum

2007|

* Arturo Sandoval
* Marilyn da Silva
* Mark Lindquist
* Richard Notkin
* Robert Brady
* William Morris
* Nanette Laitman

2008|

* Adela Akers
* Glenda Arentzen
* Gyöngy Laky
* John Horn
* Robyn Horn
* Tony Hepburn
* Toots Zynsky
* Wendy Maruyama
* Lois Moran

2009|

* Benjamin Moore
* Bernard Bernstein
* Carol Shaw-Sutton
* Jamie Bennett
* Louis Marak
* Rosanne Somerson
* Robert Pfannebecker

2010|

* Ginny Ruffner
* John Garrett
* John Stephenson
* Rebecca Medel
* Ron Ho
* Susanne Stephenson
* William Hunter
* Janet Koplos

2012|

* Andrea Gill
* Anne Currier
* Dante Marioni
* Lewis Knauss
* Sharon Church
* Sherri Smith
* Thomas Loeser
* Bruce Pepich

2014|

* John Gill
* Jane Lackey
* Michael Hurwitz
* Judith Schaechter
* Bruce Metcalf
* William Carlson
* Tina Oldknow

2016|

* Nick Cave
* Michael Cooper
* Françoise Grossen
* Chris Gustin
* Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
* Hank Murta Adams
* Edward S. Cooke Jr.

2018|

* Mark Burns
* Thomas Gentille
* Thomas Hucker
* Mary Jackson
* Beth Lipman
* Consuelo Jimenez Underwood
* Susan Cummins
* Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

2020|

* Sonya Clark
* Lisa Gralnick
* Katherine Gray
* Annabeth Rosen
* Bob Trotman
* Patricia Malarcher

2022|

* Teri Greeves
* Karen Hampton
* Nancy Koenigsberg
* Keith Lewis
* Kristina Madsen
* Mark Pharis
* Preston Singletary
* Tip Toland
* Carolyn Mazloomi
* Howard Risatti
* Lowery Stokes Sims

2024|

* Syd Carpenter
* Michael A. Cummings
* Einar and Jamex de la Torre
* Yuri Kobayashi
* Mark Newport
* Michael Puryear
* Diego Romero
* Lynda Watson
* Diana Baird N'Diaye
* Cindi Strauss

Recipients of the Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship
Dorothy Liebes (1970)
Anni Albers (1981)
Harvey Littleton (1983)
Lucy M. Lewis (1985)
Margret Craver (1986)
Peter Voulkos (1986)
Gerry Williams (1986)
Lenore Tawney (1987)
Sam Maloof (1988)
Ed Rossbach (1990)
John Prip (1992)
Beatrice Wood (1992)
Alma Eikerman (1993)
Douglass Morse Howell (1993)
Marianne Strengell (1993)
Robert C. Turner (1993)
John Paul Miller (1994)
Toshiko Takaezu (1994)
Rudolf Staffel (1995)
Bob Stocksdale (1995)
Jack Lenor Larsen (1996)
Ronald Hayes Pearson (1996)
June Schwarcz (1996)
Wendell Castle (1997)
Ruth Duckworth (1997)
Sheila Hicks (1997)
Kenneth Ferguson (1998)
Karen Karnes (1998)
Warren MacKenzie (1998)
Rudy Autio (1999)
Dominic Di Mare (1999)
L. Brent Kington (2000)
Cynthia Schira (2000)
Arline Fisch (2001)
Gertrud Natzler (2001)
Otto Natzler (2001)
Don Reitz (2002)
Kay Sekimachi (2002)
William Daley (2003)
Fred Fenster (2005)
Dale Chihuly (2006)
Paul Soldner (2008)
Katherine Westphal (2009)
Albert Paley (2010)
Stephen De Staebler (2012)
Betty Woodman (2014)
Gerhardt Knodel (2016)
Jun Kaneko (2018)
Joyce J. Scott (2020)
Jim Bassler (2022)
Lia Cook (2022)
Richard Marquis (2022)
Judy Kensley McKie (2022)
John McQueen (2022)
Patti Warashina (2022)
Nick Cave (2024)
Wendy Maruyama (2024)
Anne Wilson (2024)

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