Textile Art Painting

Adam & Eve Dress, Felicity Brown (pigment, kasein, canvas)

Textile and Pigment as a Material

I met Felicity Brown in Dubai in 2009. The lively exchange with her made me rethink painting. I didn't give up my basic attitude towards painting, but was able to expand it through material experiences and historical perspectives.

Although I come from a tailoring background, it wasn't until later that I understood that the canvas itself is fabric, i.e. that I paint on fabric - and not on an abstract image support, as I had previously assumed and as we usually categorize the canvas. Perhaps this misjudgment was due to the artificial separation between fine and applied art, craft and folk art.

Since then, I have invested a lot of time in learning more about the specific manifestations of fibers and fabrics. The techniques involved seem simple at first glance, but they unfold an infinite complexity in their application and possibilities. The word textile refers to its ancient meaning - it comes from the Latin textilis (woven) and texere (to weave) and reveals its linguistic relationship to text. This connection is no coincidence: from the quipus of the Andes (knot scripts) to medieval embroidery patterns as ‘text’, weaving has always been a form of thought, expression and communication. My friend Hassan Sharif spoke about his artistic practice as weaving.

Adam & Eve Dress, Felicity Brown (pigment, kasein, canvas) during the Adam & Eve Journey, NM 2017

During my art studies and in the years that followed, I devoted myself intensively to painting, with a particular interest in oil painting. Among other things, I was fascinated by the fact that the appearance of the pigments during the painting process with oil as a binding agent does not change in terms of the result, which is not the case with water-soluble binding agents.

After graduating from the Städelschule, I moved to Madrid with my family and was able to study the old masters in the most beautiful museum in the world, the Prado - starting with Titian, whom Manet called the ‘father of painting’. What I learned from Titian in particular, but also from Rubens and Goya, who all referred to Titian, went beyond the layered construction of painting—the separation of color and form—to the alchemy of color itself: the nature and handling of pigment as the smallest material unit, its ethereal character hovering between matter and gravity. In Titian’s work, the canvas and the visible image become one; figures seem to emerge from the surface only to sink back into it. Engaging with his paintings allows for a profound experience of humanity—its grandeur and transience. Titian achieves this through painting itself, through the distribution of pigments and their relationships, not through the illustration of content.

When I hold fibers, threads, and fabrics in my hands, it’s as if I’m grasping the ethereal presence of pigments—a way of understanding the world through touch. It’s almost as though I’m taking the pigments directly into my hands and working with them on the surface (and in space). This thought, this sensation, brings me back to Titian. Titian transcended the canvas, if I may put it that way—he moved beyond the idea of the canvas as a mere support for painting. Canvas, figures, color, and pigment merge into a single entity.

Being Adam - Felicity Brown/Carolin Kropff (oil on linen), left

Rainbow Dress, Felicity Brown (acid dye on silk) right

As with any artistic medium, there are specific foundational conditions we must take seriously if we aim to understand and practice art in depth. In May, I’ll meet with Felicity to discuss these very questions. I look forward to it!