In this curator guided tour of A Dark, a Light, a Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes, visitors will discover the stories behind American textile designer, weaver, and color authority Dorothy Liebes. Liebes had a profound influence across design fields, helping to shape American tastes in areas from interiors and transportation to industrial design, fashion, and film. The “Liebes Look”—which combined vivid color, lush texture, and often a glint of metallic—became inextricably linked with the American modern aesthetic. Tour led by the exhibition’s co-curator, Susan Brown, Associate Curator and Acting Head of Textiles.
Tour meets in the Great Hall.
A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes is made possible by The Coby Foundation; The Decorative Arts Trust; the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, a program of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum; and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The project received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Generous support is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation; Mergentime Family Archive; and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, administered by the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation.
Support is also provided by Elizabeth Whelan, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and Patsy Orlofsky.
Additional support for the publication is provided by the Andrew Mellon Foundation Publications Fund and Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.