PUBLIC MARKS from sbrothier with tags "Serizawa Keisuke" & fashion

Another of the exciting shows I saw while on my recent trip to NYC was a survey of the textile works of Serizawa Keisuke (1895-1984) at Japan Society, a Japanese designer who took his inspiration from the traditional techniques of stencil dyeing. This kimono was stunning in its color harmonies and surprising shapes. There were others just as dramatically beautiful. Some of the most startling designs were on Noren, or entrance curtains, their shapes strong and simple.

SERIZAWA KEISUKE (1895-1984) Ehon Don Kihōte (A Don Quixote Picture Book), title page dated October 1936 but book completed 1937. Paper stencilling and hand painting on paper, 11 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. Tōhoku Fukushi University Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum.

I had the good fortune to tour the comprehensive survey of works by textile master Serizawa Keisuke at the Japan Society, curated with admirable rigor by the society's gallery director Joe Earle, with two formidable blondes, Alexandra Peers of the Wall Street Journal and Alice Judelson of I-20 Gallery. As Peers commented, using an old journalistic term, "They buried the lede," by putting the jewels of the exhibition, Serizawa's incomparable kimonos from the 1960s, in a back room of the gallery, where you might miss them.