Sofie Dawo. Textile Experiments

Through this radical treatment, the manufacturing process was virtually inscribed into the object itself, and the unpredictable—the “emerging surprises” (Dawo)—were deliberately factored in. Dawo’s textile experiments are free of any function or practical application and defy clear classification as either art or craft—they stand on their own.

Sofie Dawo, born in the Saarland, studied at the State School of Art and Crafts in Saarbrücken from 1948 to 1952, first fine arts and then weaving. She was a student of Boris Kleint, who had studied painting under Johannes Itten in Berlin and served as his assistant. In this capacity, Kleint had been appointed to Saarbrücken to introduce the Bauhaus-inspired foundational curriculum there, which likely had a profound influence on Dawo. After working as a designer, primarily for the interior design of public spaces, Dawo returned in 1958 as head of the weaving and fabric printing class at the State School of Art and Crafts in Saarbrücken—now the Saarland University of Applied Sciences—with which she remained closely associated until the end of her life.

Sofie Dawo is one of those textile artists who went largely unnoticed for a long time, even though, since the 1960s, she has made a significant contribution to liberating the art of weaving from the role of merely transforming a visual image into the textile medium. She eschewed the reproduction of a motif—whether figurative or abstract—or the depiction of a narrative in favor of work that was entirely free, deriving its logic purely from the material and its technical possibilities. In doing so, she helped weaving gain recognition as an autonomous art form.

Consequently, Dawo placed great importance on being perceived as a textile artist rather than a craftsperson. Her experimental and artistic approach was characterized by her complete attunement to the material, its specific properties, and effects, allowing it to work through her hands—surprises and coincidences included. Dawo tapped into the material’s inherent potential in a variety of ways and, through her manipulation, sometimes pushed it to its physical limits—for example, by trimming threads, knotting them together, or enriching them with other materials such as metal, nylon, polyester, and so on. She also heavily manipulated the textile surfaces by scoring them or deliberately damaging intact fabric. The avant-garde artist intentionally “broke all the rules,” thereby breaking with traditional weaving techniques. Her works are not confined to a two-dimensional plane but often extend into space: they are textile sculptures.

The 22 works by Sofie Dawo, as well as selected works on paper presented at the Museum of Decorative Arts, are of particular interest due to their artistic value and represent a representative cross-section of Dawo’s oeuvre. They also address core questions of the Museum of Decorative Arts: Where do the boundaries between art and craft lie? And who defines them—when, and for what reasons?

• A special exhibition by the Museum of Decorative Arts – State Museums of Berlin
• July 17, 2026 – January 17, 2027
• Opening: Thursday, July 16, 2026, 7:00 p.m.