When the Everyday Becomes Art

The NY Times ran an article about Stephen Szczepanek, a dealer of Japanese folk textiles. It is easy to miss because it was in the Real Estate section. There are beautiful photographs of his home/gallery and collection in When the Everyday Becomes Art.

The above photograph was taken by me from the Riverside Museums post. He much more eloquently explains what I was trying to say in that post about creating beauty in the face of extreme poverty and hardship.

“What I love is that there is so much history in every piece,” he said. “These are the normal people’s textiles.”

Hanging on his walls like abstract paintings are a boro indigo futon cover and a boro yogi, or sleeping kimono. “ ‘Boro’ is a term now widely recognized that describes these patched and mended fabrics,” said Mr. Szczepanek, who is clearly awed by the ingenuity and beauty of these pieces and writes scholarly articles about them. “The Japanese are inveterate recyclers. They understood the value of cloth.”

“It’s interesting and not about me. It is art without an artist. There is no ego there, and I think that is what people respond to. It is art in my understanding of art — what excites the mind and the eye.”