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WORK TITLE: Southern Tufts
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Athen
STATE: GA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/southern_tufts * https://www.daltonstate.edu/about/news.cms/2016/88/author-ashley-callahan-featured-at-annual-book-festival
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Dalton, GA.
EDUCATION:University of the South, B.A.; Parsons School of Design, M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Independent scholar. Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, curator of decorative arts, 2000-08.
AWARDS:Lilla M. Hawes Award, Georgia Historical Society, 2016, for Southern Tufts.
WRITINGS
Contributor to Ornament magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
Ashley Callahan is an independent scholar and curator who specializes in the artwork and artifacts of Georgia. She edited the catalogues of the first four Henry D. Green symposia of the decorative arts in Georgia: The Savannah River Valley to 1865: Fine Arts, Architecture, and Decorative Arts; the First Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, Georgia Inside and Out: Architecture, Landscape, and Decorative Arts; Proceedings from the Second Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, Decorative Arts in Georgia: Historic Sites, Historic Contexts; the Third Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia, February 17 and 18, 2006, and A Colorful Past: Decorative Arts of Georgia; the Fourth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia, February 22 and 23, 2008. She also wrote the exhibition catalog Georgia Bellflowers: The Furniture of Henry Eugene Thomas.
Callahan is the author of two catalogs about the works of the Hungarian-born sister artists Ilonka and Mariska Karasz: Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981) and Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz. Ilonka was best known for her illustrations that graced the New Yorker magazine in the mid-twentieth century, but she was also a major force in textile and industrial design. Mariska, her younger sister, was a largely self-taught fabric artist and fashion designer. “Most of the art work in this book, and especially perhaps the artefacts, are not planned on a massive scale, or even a grand one,” stated Joseph Azize in a review of Enchanting Modern appearing in Under the Sun. “But they are, quite often, complete on their scale. Their simplicity and moderation corresponds to their theme, and vice versa. I have been pondering this question a good deal recently, thinking of how some pieces of music are a perfect ten, but only for what they are. Sometimes pieces are imperfect or blemished, but the ambition was greater. Both, I feel are needed.”
Callahan is also the author of the monograph Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion, for which she received the Lilla M. Hawes Award from the Georgia Historical Society in 2016. “The tale of Catherine Evans Whitener is a familiar one around Northwest Georgia,” according to Jamie Jones in an article for the Dalton Daily Citizen Online. “In the late 1800s, the young Dalton entrepreneur crafted hand-tufted chenille bedspreads that were sold all over the country. The cottage industry eventually led to the founding of the carpet industry.” “Using oral history interviews, local and trade press accounts, and a trove of advertisements from newspapers and magazines,” wrote Randall L. Patton in the Journal of Southern History, “Callahan elaborates on the variety of products that once flowed from the tufted textile industry. In particular, she goes beyond the major product lines—bedspreads and rugs—to trace the rise, decline, and nostalgic revival of tufted apparel and accessories.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Southern History, February, 2017, Randall L. Patton, review of Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion, p. 211.
Reference & Research Book News, May, 2007, review of Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz.
ONLINE
Contemporary Books 5, http://contemporarybooks5.blogspot.com/ (December 23, 2016), review of Modern Threads.
Dalton Daily Citizen Online, http://www.daltondailycitizen.com/ (March 25, 2013), Jamie Jones, “Telling the Untold Story of Dalton’s Gift to Fashion,” article about Callahan and Southern Tufts.
Dalton State College Web site, https://www.daltonstate.edu/ (July 26, 2017), “Author Ashley Callahan Featured at Annual Book Festival.”
Under the Sun, http://www.josephazize.com/ (January 7, 2017), Joseph Azize, review of Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981).*
Author Ashley Callahan Featured at Annual Book Festival
The story of how chenille bedspreads led to Dalton birthing the carpet industry is fairly well known in Northwest Georgia.
But Ashley Callahan expands on that story and traces the expansion of those bedspreads into fashion in her third book “Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion.”
Callahan is the featured author for the annual Dalton State College Book Festival on March 23 at Roberts Library. She will discuss her book at 12:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
“We are delighted to have Ashley Callahan as our featured author this year,” said Melissa Whitesell, interim director of the library. “Ms. Callahan provides a fascinating history of tufted garments. The book traces the expansion of chenille fashion from bedspreads sold along Peacock Alley to robes, dresses, kimonos, and aprons that were sold in department stores around the world.”
Callahan, a native of Dalton, has a bachelor’s from The University of the South and a master’s degree in the history of American decorative arts from the Smithsonian and Parsons. She is an independent scholar and curator in Athens, Ga. with a specialty in modern and contemporary American decorative arts.
Callahan has contributed articles to several professional journals.
Ashley Callahan has an MA in the history of American decorative arts from Parsons School of Design and the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution, and a BA in art history from the University of the South. Callahan, an independent scholar and former curator of decorative arts at the Georgia Museum of Art, is the author of Georgia Bellflowers: The Furniture of Henry Eugene Thomas, Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz, and Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz.
Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion
Randall L. Patton
Journal of Southern History. 83.1 (Feb. 2017): p211.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
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Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion. By Ashley Callahan. (Athens, Ga., and London: University of Georgia Press, 2015. Pp. xxiv, 224. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-4516-1.)
Ashley Callahan has produced a major contribution to our knowledge of the early roots of the tufted textile industry. Using oral history interviews, local and trade press accounts, and a trove of advertisements from newspapers and magazines, Callahan elaborates on the variety of products that once flowed from the tufted textile industry. In particular, she goes beyond the major product lines--bedspreads and rugs--to trace the rise, decline, and nostalgic revival of tufted apparel and accessories.
Callahan opens with two chapters establishing the early history of the tufting industry. Catherine Evans Whitener and other local women developed the handicraft of tufting, essentially recovering an older form of needlework that dated to the early nineteenth century. The rediscovery of candlewick bedspreads by women in north Georgia coincided with both the colonial revival and the Southern Appalachian folk craft revival. Department stores in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, and other major cities began hawking the wares of mostly female producers. The craft emerged in other areas of the South (South Carolina and Tennessee especially), but "[t]he majority of spreads ... were made in Northwest Georgia" (p. 11). Callahan uses a number of newspaper ads to document the early marketing of these products as genuine Appalachian handicrafts. A typical ad boasted in 1925, "A new collection has arrived from the Georgia mountains, where generation after generation has perfected this quaint old craft" (p. 54).
In truth, a single generation had recovered the look of a colonial-era handicraft and had rapidly converted it into a cottage industry. By the early 1930s, a section of U.S. Highway 41 from Chattanooga through northwest Georgia was dubbed Bedspread Boulevard. While the burgeoning industry's larger firms marketed goods through major department stores, smaller firms sold their products along roadsides for the growing number of tourists traveling by automobile. The roadside shops "drew individuals into production and sales, advertised the goods to travelers ... and served as a test market for tufted products" (p. 31).
Callahan next moves to apparel products, her primary interest. Tufted dresses, coats, and capes emerged as big sellers in the 1930s. Though fashion press reviews of the trend were "mixed," the novelty of the products apparently convinced a segment of the consuming public (p. 73).
The signature fashion item associated with the tufted textile industry was undoubtedly the chenille robe. The marketing of chenille robes, like other tufted apparel, focused on "practical attributes of affordability and ease of care," rather than appeals to folk tradition (p. 104). Vibrant colors, a reputation for comfort, and creative designs also contributed to the appeal of chenille robes. The invention of larger machines capable of producing robe parts by the yard boosted the industry after World War II to new heights, and chenille robes peaked in popularity in the late 1940s. Concerns over flammability emerged as a product safety issue in the same period, just as the product seemed to peak in cultural terms. Callahan observes that shifting images in popular culture helped doom the chenille robe, including an unflattering portrayal in the 1953 film Come Back, Little Sheba. The book finishes with a chapter on the nostalgic revival of chenille products.
The University of Georgia Press and the author deserve praise for the lavish illustrations that adorn the book. These full-color images of the colorful products and black-and-white images detailing the work process make a crucial contribution to our understanding of this industry. The images also demonstrate the pivotal role of women as producers and consumers of chenille fashions. Callahan's work adds detail to our knowledge of this important southern industry and contributes to our understanding of the production and consumption of fashion in the twentieth century.
Randall L. Patton
Kennesaw State University
Modern threads; fashion and art by Mariska Karasz
Reference & Research Book News. 22.2 (May 2007):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
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9780915977611
Modern threads; fashion and art by Mariska Karasz.
Callahan, Ashley.
Georgia Museum of Art
2007
127 pages
$30.00
Paperback
TT505
In a book issued in conjunction with a decorative arts exhibition held January 20-April 15, 2007 at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, curator Callahan introduces the work of Karasz (1989-1960). Called a "painter in thread," Hungarian-born Mariska and her sister Ilonka (who Callahan wrote about in 2003) were innovative but under-studied American textile designers. The 10x8" book features photos of Karasz modeling her folk art- influenced clothes, photos of the designer/author of Adventures in Stitches (1949), checklists from her selected exhibits, and an attractive textile-themed cover.
([c]20072005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
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Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz With many full-color images representing all three of these categories, it is the most comprehensive work published on Karasz.. It is divided into three major sections, one focusing on her fashion de
Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz
Title : Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz
Author : Ashley Callahan
Rating : 4.89 (905 Votes)
Id Book : 0915977613
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 128 Pages
Publish Date : 2007-01-02
Type File : PDF, DOC, RTF, ePub
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This fully illustrated book on fashion designer and fiber artist Mariska Karasz (1898-1960) accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Georgia Museum of Art from January 20 to April 15, 2007. It is divided into three major sections, one focusing on her fashion design for women, one on her fashion design for children, and one on her embroidered wall hangings. With many full-color images representing all three of these categories, it is the most comprehensive work published on Karasz.
By now sociologists have pretty well demonstrated that industrialized nations, all of them high energy users, gain virtually nothing in measurable quality of life by using even more energy. There are a few misgivings in dramatical development, like when Kiram receives a letter from his academy tutor that potentially shatters all previous preconceptions he, the "genius mechanist", like the reader, might have had about himself, but it's all part of a slippery slope of events that doesn't give you the time to reflect and makes it easy to overlook. In fact, marketing exists since new business is "out in the street".
This book will not help you in your research. I was suprised that Richter did not explore this issue, as he does corn-based ethanol.
Another curious omission is cogeneration, barely practiced in the U.S., though clearly it should be in the "winner" column. The benefits of this book are wonderful. We have run mile after mile, outdoors, year-round in all kin
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Enchanting Modern: A Review
Posted on January 7, 2017 by Joseph Azize
Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981), Ashley Callahan, Georgia Museum of Art, 2003)
The only disappointing feature of this beautiful book is that Ilonka Karasz’s status as a personal pupil of Gurdjieff is barely noted (see p.14). A quick check of Taylor’s Gurdjieff’s America discloses that she had joined Orage’s groups in the 1920s, married Wim Nyland (more widely known as one of the leading pupils, perhaps because he established his own groups), and studied with Gurdjieff both in Europe and the USA. I recall hearing that even after Nyland’s split from the Foundation, she continued to take groups at the NY Foundation. The little I have heard of her as a group leader has all been sincerely grateful. Having now read this book, and spent time in front of its beautiful full colour illustrations, it is to be perhaps regretted that her pupils have not produced a book about her as a teacher, because it is fair to conjecture that her approach to Gurdjieff’s ideas and methods would have the simple and dignified charm of her art.
Although it is a catalogue for an exhibition, this volume is, to employ the over-used word, interesting. The Latin word “inter-esse” means “to be in between”. Our fast and true etymological friend, W.W. Skeat tells us that the history of the word and how it came to mean “concerned in” is a lengthy one. So be it, but the word is ideal for describing the universal attraction to that area in between certainties, facts and givens. To be “interesting” is, in this sense, more than just to be curious: it is to be in that place where the third force can appear, to be poised to reconcile opposites, to bridge gaps, and to transcend the dead-end.
It is not that Karasz’s astounding variety of artistic output, from covers of the New Yorker, to textiles to silverware, manifests something divine. None of this art is on the same level as Piero della Francesca or Fra Angelico. Indeed, some of her art like the cubist influenced design on p. 50 is, to my eye, merely clever and well-executed.
But there is often a sensitivity to living objects and to the life in nature which captures something, at least, of the “thusness” of reality. I think that this factor grew stronger in her work as she matured. At her best, something of the panorama of life is captured in a still, eternal moment, the way, perhaps, that Peter Bruegel the Elder does in his Children’s Games (1560). Further, the Christmas design reproduced with this review shows the clear influence of Gurdjieff’s sacred movements. Thus, a sense of the holy is mediated. Doubtless, it will mean more to someone who has worked at the movements, but still, there is a universality in these postures which anyone can imaginatively enter.
In much of her art, there is a sense of wonder, for example, see “The Flight into Egypt” on p. 24. There is also a sense of innocence, e.g. “Apple Harvest” on p.61. Sometimes, the wonder and the innocence are swept up in a quasi-mystical vision of the oneness beneath the diverse manifestations of life, as in “Ducks and Grasses” on p. 120.
That is, in presenting the “thusness” of the creation, something, at least, of its goodness, beauty and truth is also conveyed. I do not think that I am alone in believing that this can only happen where that goodness, beauty and truth have been felt and acknowledged.
So, what did I find especially interesting about this art?
Shortly, it so touched me, and touching me sparked such a chain of internal events, that I could not but ask: can art be an aide to the spiritual work? Of course, the answer is yes, but the fact that these productions prompted the question, stirring up my feelings, shows that the experience I had was fresh. Had it not been fresh, the question would not have been new. But it was.
And this in turn brought me to ponder something I had only ever seen out of the corner of my eye before: the way that there is an art, and sometimes a very fine one, in so many practices and professions of daily life.
I do not mean this in any trite sense: “We are all artists and our lives are our art.” This is not so. I cannot call art the wastelands of our lives, lived as they are with stormy emotion but so little feeling of my presence and reality.
Rather, I mean it in the sense that even when I was a lawyer among lawyers, there was a certain artistry in the best of our work. I was, for much of my career, a prosecutor. Sometimes a case would be prepared with such attention and knowledge, and such a concern for fairness, that the presentation of with carefully drafted and delivered submissions was indeed a work of art, perhaps on as high a level as the best even of Ilonka Karasz. I can recall, in particular, one elderly judge, possessor of both an excellent mind and a true sense of mercy. He would impartially hear the case and consider the evidence, then calmly proceed to judgment. It was like being in the audience of an orchestra caught up by sweet harmony.
Then, one can think of the liturgy. If Fra Angelico produced art fit for the worshipping spirit, perhaps the liturgy is worship which produces, for its manifestation, art which corresponds to a higher vibration. But only sometimes. For that exalted realisation, so much must enter in, not least the architecture of the church, the decorations, the music and so on.
I will leave with just one more thought: most of the art work in this book, and especially perhaps the artefacts, are not planned on a massive scale, or even a grand one. But they are, quite often, complete on their scale. Their simplicity and moderation corresponds to their theme, and vice versa. I have been pondering this question a good deal recently, thinking of how some pieces of music are a perfect ten, but only for what they are. Sometimes pieces are imperfect or blemished, but the ambition was greater. Both, I feel are needed. In Book VI of the Republic, Plato wrote: “All great attempts are attended with risk; ‘hard is the good’.”
That is sufficient for now. But again, considering this extraordinary little book confirms me in my view that good art seeks the morally and spiritually good. It serves beauty or truth – sometimes indirectly, of course – but in no other name can it advance.
Joseph Azize, 7 January 2017