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

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  • 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

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  • Solo exhibition Ann Sutton On From Weaving - A Survey (2021-22) at NewArtCentre, Roche Court can be viewed here

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  • 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

Diminishing Square Thickness

Bristle Box (maquette)

Stocking Series: Crossed Stockings

Loveseat

Square Spectrum Spiral

Bedcover MkII

Diamond 1-11

Woven Knitted Spectrum

Logical Weave Footstool

Bracelet

Colour Change Net

Material Series: Wool Diagonal

Primary Interweave

Double Cloth Permutation II

Spectrum Chequer I

Colour Clues + Purple, Colour Clues + Red

Serial Woven Study: Double Steps

Too Long for It’s Space (Colour)

Going into Series: Cyan Going into Vermillion, Lime Going into Magenta, Green Going into Red

Warm Cool Alternating

Too Long for It’s Space (Black)

Highway

Neck Piece (3/7)

Refuge for Reading

Fold Back

Interwoven Bright Large

Paint in Space: Black and White

Paint in Space: Bright

Paint in Space: Brighter

Double Knots Colour I

Weave Overlap

Weave Interweave 1 (Series of 6)

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