Ann
Sutton
News
‘I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it’ - Picasso
- Awarded Worshipful Company of Weavers Silver Medal 2026 for outstanding contribution to the textile industry
- Honoured in 2022 by Queen Elizabeth II New Year’s Honours List with the award of the OBE for Ann’s Services to the Arts
- Solo exhibition Ann Sutton On From Weaving - A Survey (2021-22) at NewArtCentre, Roche Court can be viewed here
- The documentary film about Ann, “My Bones Are Woven” was screened by the British Library, in London, 2022. Speakers included Ann Coxon, then Curator of International Art at Tate Modern. You can watch the trailer below
Film: "My Bones Are Woven" Trailer
Statement
‘There is no path. You make the path by walking'. - Antonio Machado
My work often starts with the material and its properties. Once we have played, and are in tune, the material will provide parameters: instructions to the user. Bells ring. There is hardly ever a finished image in mind. That arrives via a merge of material qualities/related numbers. It is always a surprise, and comes from health/honesty. Never in an attempt for 'beauty'. Techniques rarely have names, because I am inventing the way of working to work with the chosen material. I invent them to suit the material.
However, I am deeply committed to the structure of weaving and to enlarging its possibilities.
Some weaves are possible only with handwork. Others are possible only with the help of a computer connected to a digital loom But warp and weft are constant, and usually at right angles to each another.
Where I use colour it is not in any aesthetic way, but as a locator and to differentiate. Sometimes the results are aesthetically interesting, even pleasing, and that may come though healthy relationships of material and concept. If it does then that is a bonus, but it is never an aim.
Areas, spaces colour : all depends on comparison/ identity. I am always searching for new structures and materials.
The narrative is in the making. Nothing is accidental or aesthetic.
Ann Sutton
On unqualified freedom: 'I would as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down'. - Robert Frost
Work
- All
- 1960s
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s
- 2000s
- 2010s
- 2020s
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Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions:
| 1969 | 'Ann Sutton: Textiles' British Crafts Centre, London |
| 1970 | 'Textile Images on Paper' V&A |
| 1975 | 'Ann Sutton: Textiles' British Crafts Centre, London |
| 1979 | 'Work in Progress' Crafts Council, London and tour |
| 1984 | 'Ann Sutton Textiles' Anatol Orient Gallery, London |
| 1985 | 'Ann Sutton Textiles' Norrköpings Konstmuseum, Sweden (Southern Arts and British Council) |
| 1986 | 'Ann Sutton Textiles' Borås Textilmuseet, Borås, Sweden |
| 1986 | 'Ann Sutton' Konstfackskolan, Stockholm, Sweden |
| 1987 | 'Ann Sutton Textiles' Carmarthen Library and touring Wales |
| 1995 | 'No Cheating Serial Woven Studies' Southern Arts Touring Exhibition Service |
| 1997 | 'Ann Sutton Näyttely Exhibition' Helsinki |
| 2003 | 'Show 5 - Ann Sutton Retrospective' The Crafts Council |
| 2014 | 'Counterpoint' Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London |
| 2016-17 | 'On the Grid' touring exhibition, Gallery Oldham and The Potteries Museum, Stoke on Trent |
| 2018 | 'Looking Through' the Winchester Gallery, Winchester |
| 2021-22 | 'On From Weaving - A Survey' NewArtCentre, Roche Court, Salisbury |
Group Exhibitions:
| 1962 | 'Seven Artists' Hove Museum, Sussex |
| 1963 | 'Designer Craftsman '63' Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry |
| 1970 | 'Beutlich, Collingwood and Sutton Dennis' Croneen Gallery, Sydney, Australia |
| 1973 | 'Hand and Machine' Design Centre, Brussels, Belgium |
| 1973 | 'The Craftsman's Art' (Crafts Council), V&A |
| 1974/78/80 | 1st, 3rd and 4th 'International Exhibitions of Miniature Textiles' British Crafts Centre, London and world tour |
| 1974 | 'Sutton/Treen' touring exhibition, organised by Crafts Council |
| 1975 | 'Architecture and Living' Wohnen Design, Düsseldorf, Germany |
| 1977 | 'Ceramics and Textile: British Cultural Festival' Mehre Shah Gallery, Teheran, Iran and tour organised by the British Council |
| 1977 | 'International Tapestry Triennale' (invited British exhibitor), Lodz, Poland |
| 1980 | 'The Craft of the Weaver' British Crafts Centre, London |
| 1980 | 'Contemporary British Crafts' Sotheby's, London |
| 1981 | 'International Triennale of Tapestries' Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland |
| 1985 | 'Constructivist Clothing' Oxford Gallery, Oxford (with Diane Hawkins and Caroline Broadhead) |
| 1987 | 'Wall to Wall, Cornerhouse' Manchester and touring (Ann wrote part of the catalogue) |
| 1988 | 'Classics in the Crafts' Crafts Council |
| 1998 | 'The Pleasures of Peace' Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich |
| 2010 | 'warp+weft' Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen |
| 2011 | 'Resonant Colour' Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, Cwmbran |
| 2011 | 'Sitting and Looking' Somerset House, London |
| 2012 | 'Barry Summer School Exhibition' Art Central Gallery, Barry, South Wales |
| 2012-13 | 'Beauty is the First Test' touring exhibition, Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, The National Centre of Craft and Design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire and Bilston Craft Gallery, Bilston, West Midlands |
| 2015 | Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, Tenby |
| 2015 | 'Collect' Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2016 | 'Taste Contemporary Craft' Artgenéve, Geneva |
| 2018 | 'The Most Real Thing' NewArtCentre, Roche Court, Salisbury |
| 2021 | 'Maker's Eye: Stories of Craft' Crafts Council, London |
| 2023 | Emma Mason British Prints, Eastbourne |
| 2024 | 'Ideas in the Making' Oxford Ceramics Gallery |
| 2025 | 'Second Skin' Sid Motion Gallery, London |
Permanent Collections
| V & A |
| Tate |
| Crafts Council Primary Collection |
| Crafts Council Handling Collection |
| Sainsbury Centre, Norwich |
| Gallery Oldham |
| Welsh Woollen Museum |
| Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery |
| National Museum of Wales |
| York Museums Trust |
| Herbert Art Gallery and Museum |
| Harris Museum and Art Gallery |
| Atkinson Art Gallery |
| Nottingham City Museums and Art Gallery |
| Hampshire County Art Collection |
| Lotherton Hall Collection |
| Williamson Art Gallery and Museum |
| Portsmouth City Museum and Records Service |
| Peter Collingwood Collection |
| The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery |
| Hove Museum and Art Gallery |
| Huddersfield Art Gallery |
| Borås Textilmuseet, Sweden |
| Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery |
| Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery |
| Wakefield Art Gallery |
Books and TV
Books By Me
| 1975 | Tablet Weaving, Ann Sutton and Pat Holtom, Batsford UK |
| 1982 | The Craft of the Weaver, Ann Sutton, Peter Collingwood, Geraldine St. Aubyn Hubbard, BBC Publications UK |
| 1982 | The Structure of Weaving, Ann Sutton, Hutchinson UK |
| 1984 | Tartans, Ann Sutton and Richard Carr, Bellew Publishing UK |
| 1985 | British Craft Textiles, Ann Sutton, Wm. Collins & Sons UK |
| 1985 | Colour and Weave, Ann Sutton, Bellew Publishing UK, Lark USA |
| 1987 | The Textiles of Wales, Ann Sutton, Bellew Publishing UK |
| 1989 | Ideas in Weaving, Ann Sutton and Diane Sheehan , USA Batsford UK, Lark USA |
| 1990 | Falcot’s Weave Companion, Ann Sutton ( Ed. and foreword ) Anne Satow ( translation), Bellew Publishing UK |
Books About Me
| 2004 | Ann Sutton, Diane Sheehan USA , Susan Tebby, Lund Humphries UK |
TV
| 1980 | The Craft of the Weaver, Written and presented by Ann Sutton, 5-part TV series BBC UK |
Contact
Ann Sutton is represented by NewArtCentre, Roche Court
Email: nac@sculpture.uk.com
Instagram: @annsutton.artist