This October, the UK’s largest ever survey of the contemporary American artist Richard Tuttle will take place in London. It will include a major exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, a large-scale sculptural commission at Tate Modern, and a new publication. The project, titled “I Don’t Know, Or The Weave of Textile Language,” was conceptualized by the artist and focuses on the importance of textiles across his body of work and into the latest developments in his practice.

Tuttle, who came to prominence in the 1960s, has worked in a range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, and furniture. Using humble, everyday materials such as cloth, paper, rope, and plywood, Tuttle creates subtle, intimate works that elude historical or stylistic categorization. He began experimenting with textiles in 1978 during a residency at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Tuttle employed his interest in the silkscreen printing process and made a series of clothing -- "Shirts" in 1978 and "Pants" in 1979. Functional in nature, the articles of clothing play with line, volume, pattern, and shape -- attributes the artist continues to explore.