Mariska Karasz
Spring Game
1956
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Mariska Karasz
Spring Game
1956
Physical Qualities
Wool, cotton, silk, linen and jute embroidery threads on coarse linen ground with wooden slats, 39-1/2 x 59-1/8 in. (100.4 x 150.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Howard and Sylvia Lenhoff, Oxford, Mississippi
Object Number
2001.335
The embroidered wall hanging, entitled 'Spring Game,' features a maze-like abstract design, most likely representing a garden layout. The ground is coarsely woven and processed linen, which is embroidered with wool, silk, cotton, linen and jute threads and yarns, both machine and handspun. The stitches used are closed herringbone, couching, and open buttonhole (Karasz gives these stitches her own names in her book 'Adventures in Stitching...'); All stitches are used in an unorthodox fashion. The colors employed are browns, greens, tans, beiges, rust, oranges, and yellows; all are possibly prodoouced with natural dyes. The hanging is constructed of two equal size pieces of burlap, seamed down the middle, prior to embroidering. The seamed edges are cut and the side edges are selvages. The top and bottom edges are elaborately sewn into wooden hanging rods original to the construction.
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2001; Howard and Sylvia Lenoff, Oxford, MS by purchase, late 1950s ; Mariska Karasz (1898-1960), Miami, FL.
Anita Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Jean and Allan Berman Textile Gallery,"Textiles: Recycled/Reimagined," March 10 - October 10, 2010, no catalog.
Inscribed: Embroidered in lower right corner of textile, 'mk'.