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I've been reading on modernist textiles, mostly to get some inspiration from Art Deco and the Arts and Crafts Movement, since I think that nothing comparable to their designs has occurred in the proceeding years. One notable book is "The Modernist Textile - Europe and America, 1890-1940"" by Virginia Gardner Troy.
The history of modernist art is long and fascinating. In fact, all the major artists of that period were involved in textile design. Part of their interest lay in the flat surfaces so many were trying to emulate during their long departure from what they called "illusionary" art - art which described or represented the real world around them.
The author went on to discuss textile art, decoration and ornamentation. Which led me to look up Henri Matisse (research is a strange journey - I remembered a Met exhibition on Matisse's love of textiles a couple of years ago, and was excited to find the catalog). Matisse was greatly interested in Islamic textiles, which influenced his work, not just in the arabesque-styled cloths he put in his paintings, but also in the way he tried to make his pieces like a juxtaposition of fabrics, carpets and coverings, much like the decor in Islamic homes.
This led to another book that I remember reading: "Ornament and abstraction : the dialogue between non-Western, modern and contemporary art."
At that time (about three years ago), this book was just a further indication that late 19th and early 20th century artists tried to combine fine art with arts and crafts, which led them to explore surfaces and materials, and veer away from painting in classical 3-dimensional techniques.
But, a second reading revealed something new to me - or I understood it better this time.
The same spirit that produced Islamic "art" - which is really a profusion of ornamentation and decoration - is the same spirit that produced, eventually, abstract and non-representational art. That spirit is the disinclination to reproduce representational art, since non-representational art is believed (by these art practitioners) to be more pure and more spiritual.
Yes, I'm using the word "spirit" deliberately, since I think it explains many things. Mainly that the effort by these modernist artists was a way to find spiritual satisfaction.
This is still a rather disjointed thesis. It might take me a while to work it through. But, I think I'm onto something! That Islamic (religious) art and modernists' (spiritual) art were on the same path.
More to come.