Rome, Ga – Rome Area Council for the Arts (RACA) invites the public to attend a book signing by Dr. Virginia Gardner Troy for her new book, “The Modernist Textile: Europe and America, 1890-1940.” Cosponsored by the Berry College Fine Arts Department, the book signing and reception will be Thursday, April 19, 6:00-8:00 pm, at the RACA gallery, 248 Broad Street, in historic downtown Rome.

            The signing and reception will occur in conjunction with the opening reception for “Common Thread: An Exhibit of Textile Art from Northwest Georgia,” curated by Berry College alumna Elizabeth Bonner. “Common Thread” will be on display April 16-March 11, 2007, at the RACA gallery.
            Admission to the signing and reception is free of charge. For more information, call RACA at 706-295-ARTS, email romearts@aol.com, or visit the RACA web site at www.romearts.org.

            Published in November 2006 by Lund Humphries Publishing, London, the art division of Ashgate Publishing, “The Modernist Textile” reveals the unique contribution of modernist textiles which challenged artistic hierarchies and instigated visual and theoretical changes. Textiles were ideal historical markers that pinpointed pivotal moments of an era in transition.

            Exploring the role of textile design, textile production, textile collections, and critical responses to textiles from 1890 to 1940, “The Modernist Textile” provides, for the first time, a survey of textiles in the modern age. Including in-depth analysis of the trends that developed across Europe and America, the book draws on all major phases of the modernist period, from Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts Movement, through Constructivism and the influence of South American ancient arts on twentieth-century American textiles.

Combining skilled analysis with a wealth of beautiful images, some of which are published here for the first time, “The Modernist Textile” is an invaluable resource for those interested in gaining a new perspective on the significant visual and cultural developments that took place in Europe and America between 1890 and 1940.

            Virginia Gardner Troy is Associate Professor of Art History at Berry College , in Mt. Berry , Georgia , USA . She is the author of “Anni Albers and Ancient American Textiles: From Bauhaus to Black Mountain” (Ashgate, 2002). Troy received her Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Western Washington University, her Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Washington, and her Ph.D. in Art History from Emory University.