Polly Barton
Polly Barton is an American textile artist. She was born in New York City. As a student she studied art history at Barnard College and has lived and traveled in Paris, Florence, and Rome. In 1981, she moved to Kameoka, Japan, to study with master weaver Tomohiko Inoue, living in the religious heart of the Oomoto Foundation. She returned to New York in 1982 and continued to weave on her Japanese tsumugi silk kimono looms.
A nationally recognized artist, she shows her woven silk ikat paintings on both coasts, and is collected by the , Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and by important private collectors. Her work has been published in numerous magazines including Hali Magazine, FiberArts, Surface Design Journal and American Craft. She is a member of the Textile Society of America, Friends of Fiber Arts International, the Surface Design Association and the Textile Arts Alliance of Santa Fe.
Exhibitions
2012:- New Woven Works, William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- San Francisco Art Fair, Linda Fairchild Contemporary Art, San Francisco, California
- Sourcing the Museum, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC
- New Works, Gail Martin, New York City
- Sleight of Hand, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
- Instructors Exhibition, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina
- New Work, William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe
- New Fibers 2010, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan
- Transformed Traditions in Ikat, Modern Arts Midwest, Lincoln, Nebraska
- Origin, Shumei Arts Council, Pasadena, California
- Thread: Drawn, Dyed, Woven, William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe
- Visible Presence, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, California
- Woven Expressions, Gail Martin Gallery, New York City
- Saturn Returns: Back to the Future of Fiber Art, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose
- Los Pintores: Past, Present, and Future, RSA along with FACT, Santa Fe
- Then and Now, William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe
- Material Difference: Soft Sculpture and Wall Works, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois
- SOFA Chicago, Jane Sauer Gallery, Chicago
- New Works, Linda Fairchild Gallery, San Francisco
- Opening Night, Linda Fairchild Gallery of Contemporary Art, San Francisco
- SOFA New York, Gail Martin Gallery, New York City
- Threads on the Edge: The Daphne Farago Fiber Art Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
- Survey Fiber 2002, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Public collections
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
- Miho Museum, Misono, Japan
- Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Daphne Farago Collection, Boston
- Guido Goldman Ikat Collection, New York City
- Davis, Polk & Wardwell, London, England and New York City
- Tobin Collection, Santa Fe
- Oomoto Foundation, Kameoka, Japan
- Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City
- Grace Cathedral, San Francisco
- Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York City
- Community Hospital Foundation of the Monterey Peninsula
Honors
- 1997 – Honorable Mention Crafts, Taos Open, Taos, New Mexico
- 1986 – Stanley Mendelbaum Award, Juried Exhibition of the New York Guild of Handweavers, New York City
- 1985 – Juror's Award, Juried Exhibition of the New York Guild of Handweavers, New York City
- 1984 – Best of Show Award, Convergence ’84, Dallas, Texas
Publications
- Elder, E. Gaye. “Polly Barton: Painter of Silk Ikats”. Shuttle, Spindle, and Dyepot. Volume 41, No. 4, Spring 2010
- Arney, Suzanne Smith. “Fiber Exhibitions by Polly Barton, Mary Anne Jordan, Eleanor McCain, and Mary Zicafoos”. Shuttle, Spindle, and Dyepot.
- *Vol. XXXIX, No. 4, Fall 2008, page 26–28.
- Westfall, Carol. “Polly Barton: Woven Explorations”. Surface Design Journal. Volume 22, No. 1, Fall 2008. Page 60-61
- Wykes, Sarah. “Rise of the Quilters”. San Jose Mercury News. December 9, 2007
- “Then and Now”. Art News. Vol. 106, Summer 2007 Issue, page 209
- Ullman, Polly. Material Difference and Soft Sculpture & Wall Works. Published by Friends of Fiber Art International
- Heppenheimer, Jill. “Creativity at Midlife”. FiberArts. Vol. 32 No. 2, Sept/Oct. 2005, pages 46–51
- Myers, Janice. “At Home with the Sacred”, Su Casa, Vol. 10 No. 3, Summer 2004, pages 68–75
- SOFA New York, The Sixth Annual International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art,
- *May 29-June 1, 2003, Catalogue page 77
- Hoffman, Bruce. Survey Fiber 2002, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Catalogue page 4
- Surface Design Journal, Summer 2001, Feature article
- SOFA New York, The Sixth Annual International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art,
- *May 31-June 4, 2001, Catalogue page 63
- A Front Row Seat for SOFA, Special Advertising Supplement, Art & Auction, 2001, page 202
- Zrebiec, Alice. “Polly Barton’s Ikat Paintings: Internal Harmony/External Epiphany”. Surface Design Journal,
- *Vol 25. No 4. Summer 2001, pages 36–41
- Larochette, Jean Pierre and Lurie, Yael. “Thread by Thread”. American Tapestry Biennial III, 2000
- HALI Magazine, Design File, Winter 2000
- “Exposure”, Surface Design Journal, Vol 23, No 3, Spring 1999, page 42
- Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, Nov. 1994
- Malarcher, Patricia. “Of One Cloth: Textiles of the Liturgical Arts”, Surface Design Journal, Vol 13, No.3. Spring 1989, pages 5–11
- Malarcher, Patricia. The Liturgical Vestment: a Contemporary Overview, FiberArts, vol.11, No.5. Sept/Oct 1984, pages 58–61
Lectures and workshops
- 2009 - Shumei, Crestone, Colorado
- 2008 - William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe
- *Visible Presence, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose
- *Textile Arts Alliance, Santa Fe
- *Shumei, Crestone
- 2004 - Design with Heart, Santa Fe
- 2002 - Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- *Textile Arts Alliance, Santa Fe
- *Summer Workshop: Ikat, Northern New Mexico Community College, El Rito, New Mexico
- 2001 – Summer Workshop: Ikat, Northern New Mexico Community College, El Rito
Education
- 2000–1993 – Northern New Mexico Community College, El Rito
- 1984 – Parsons School of Design, New York City
- 1983–82 – Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City
- 1981–82 – Kameoka, Japan, Apprentice to Master weaver Tomohiko Inoue
- 1978 – Summer seminar, The Oomoto School of Traditional Japanese Arts, Kameoka, Japan
- 1978 – BA, Barnard College, New York City, magna cum laude