Dutch textile artist Anne von Freyburg calls her work textile paintings as she ‘evokes a dialogue between painting and tapestry’. Her work considers the different uses, values and implications of fabrics and has a sense of playfulness and irony as she reimagines old masterpieces into swirling colours and textures. “I am looking for abstraction in figuration, as if the painting becomes a textile ornament and the textiles become painting. 

Firstly where did you grow up and where do you live now? 

I grew up in a small town near Arnhem The Netherlands and moved to London in 2014 for my M.A in Fine Art.

What is your background in textiles?

I come from a creative and artistic family. My father was a fashion designer and my mother worked as a stylist and adviser for German textile companies. My stepfather is a painter and made props for these textile companies for the Textile Fair in Paris. Almost every year I went with them to the textile fair until the age of 18. With my mother I went to textile libraries of Promostyle where we were allowed to look at the newest trends in fashion textile design. I always loved the different styles, textures and colours of fabrics. I learned a lot about textiles and its message from going to trend forecasts and lectures by Lideweij Edelkoort. I guess these early encounters with textiles influenced my later work. When I did my BA in Fashion Design at ArtEZ in Arnhem I understood more about the history and meaning of fabrics as well. I graduated in Fashion design in 2001 and made collections and participated in a few fashion competitions. My interest was always in fine art and fashion as an art form. I never saw myself as a designer but as an artist. In that period I experienced a lot of snobbery and prejudice against textiles used in art. I started to do research on textiles and where this division between fine art and textiles in art originates. 

That research brought a lot of other questions and topics to the surface that I decided to apply for a master degree in Fine Art. In 2014 I was accepted for the two year fine art course at Goldsmiths University in London. 

What is it about textiles as an art form that appeals to you? 

Like every other medium or craft, textile has its own meaning and aesthetic appearance. If it is used to support the concept of the work and it makes it therefore stronger it is as good and liable as any other material to make art with. I have several reasons for using textile as my main medium. Fabrics have a surface quality and textures to them that communicate in a different way than paint does. Besides that textiles have a female history. Through people’s clothes one can tell a lot about the culture, background and status of that person. For example tapestries and curtain fabrics have again a different purpose and another meaning than glossy pvc and sequin fabrics. 

I use various fashion fabrics in my work to communicate about modern culture. Next to that I repurpose vintage tapestry wall hangings and furniture fabrics in my paintings as well. The mixture of fabrics in my work is important because of their historical social background and what they mean today. Tapestries were originally expensive decorative insulated wall-hangings to keep the cold out of the castles. They were replicas of master paintings made by women and less important than its original. By re-using fake, machine woven and kitschy tapestry wall-hangings from the 1970s with exaggerated swirly painting techniques I aim to evoke a dialogue between painting and tapestry. At the same time it is also mend to be ironic, because the tapestries that I use in these works are cheap replicas of rustic, romantic, frivolous and typical rococo style sceneries. Mixing different materials is also a way to say, all materials are equal. Besides that I am interested to push ideas around kitsch and bad taste. With materials and surface embellishment I find it easier to question these ideas. With textiles I can evoke other kinds of emotions and appeal to the senses of touch that in my opinion paint does in another way. It is very fascinating to me how one can transform and influence ones identity and body with clothes. Therefore the performative and theatrical aspects of fashion and textiles, is something that I use as a form of communication as well. 

What techniques do you use?

All my work is firstly painted with acrylic inks on raw canvas, which I then build up with fabrics or embroidery. 

In my recent paintings I use an applique and a quilting technique with polyester wadding to enhance the bodily and a haptic side of the work. It is all done by hand, but I don’t want to fetishise handcraft. I am not interested in the hand-made or machine-made discussion.

In the silver embroidered portraits I used a free-hand embroidery technique. 

Mostly I work by hand because the sewing machine is simply not capable of doing the heavy, thick and large-scale pieces. Also I have more control over it. Sometimes it is easier to work by hand than by machine, but it does takes longer that is the down side of it. The Fringes and curtain cords that I use are all painted with acrylics.

How do you describe your work ?

I see my work as paintings or textile-paintings, which contain a mixture of paint and various fabrics. Miriam Schapiro named her work, femmage by fusing the words feminine and collage. Even though I am not mainly collaging the fabrics, I do feel connected with this term. 

My work is painting based and the materials that I use and its aesthetic have a meaning in relation to its painted subject. Overall I am looking for abstraction in figuration, as if the painting becomes a textile ornament and the textiles become painting. At the moment I am working on an ongoing series where I am appropriating and translating paintings from the rococo period into a mixture of acrylic-paint, fashion fabrics and vintage wall-tapestries with an applique quilt technique. These are a mixture of paintings and tapestry wall-hangings. I am interested in challenging the hierarchical system between craft and fine art and the constructs of Western beauty in art history. The work is in one way a celebration of the female history of textiles, the feminine, the pretty, decoration and ornaments. At the same time it addresses female excessive consumerism, the beauty industry body fetishism and the self-indulgence selfie-culture of today. 

How do you create a piece?

With the rococo pieces I begin with manipulating photo reproductions of old masters paintings in photo-shop. I change the colour and surface of the original piece into a more contemporary colour pallet. It is like painting with digital instruments on old masters reproductions. After that I translate the prints into line drawings that I use as blueprints for the actual work painted on canvas. The digital manipulated master paintings I use as colour reference for my painting. When the sketch is finished I can start painting on raw canvas. This is done quite quickly and functions as an under-painting for me to build on with various kinds of fabrics. If I have a new idea for a technique I make some samples, but mostly I work out new ideas directly on a piece. After all the fabrics are glued onto the canvas I take it home where I stretch it on an embroidery frame and start stitching the pieces onto the canvas. In this phase I can still decide to use machine or hand-embroidery effects. Next I start adding polyester wadding and use a quilting technique to create a puffy effect. Finally, I paint the fringes, which are the last element to add and finish the piece with.

Where do you work? 

I am very fortunate to have my own studio at Thames Side Studios in Greenwich. Before the pandemic I often went to Holland to work at my parents house where I have a studio as well. 

I know this is a hard question but how long does a bigger piece take? 

It is a hard question, because I often work on more pieces at the same time. A big piece demands so much physical work that I like to vary it with painting or drawing. I guess I work on a large piece of around 2m for a month or two. 

What are you most proud of in your art career so far? 

I think I am most proud of that I have moved to London for my art career. Having a studio in London and to be able to work on my practice is a privilege on its own. Of course it is always the last artwork that I feel most attached with and proud of.

Do you have any advice for aspiring textile artists? 

Be distinctive and never listen to advice.

Where can people purchase or see your work? 

An exhibition is planned with James Freeman Gallery when Covid restrictions lift.

Zerp gallery in Rotterdam represents my work in Holland https://www.zerp.nl

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