iKunstgewerbemuseumTiergarten
Sofie Dawo. Textile Experiments
22 textile works by Sofie Dawo (1926–2010), who reworked fabric by disrupting and damaging it, creating objects that sit between art and craft.
More in Berlin
In one hanging from 1977, rust-red Smyrna wool crosses a white cotton warp, with extra threads knotted in on a high loom. Sofie Dawo (1926 to 2010) broke weaving's rules on purpose: she cut threads, scratched surfaces, damaged intact cloth and worked in metal, nylon and polyester. She called the accidents "emerging surprises".
There are 22 of her textiles here, all lent by Jochum Rodgers in Berlin, plus works on paper. Several leave the flat plane, like a 1965 hanging that adds metal rods to the cotton and wool. Don't count on the titles: every piece photographed in the show is Untitled, so the labels read like a haberdashery receipt. Textile Forum's Beatrijs Sterk wrote that the show confirms Dawo was an independent fine artist whose medium was textile.
It's a compact show about one long-overlooked artist and the museum's own question of where craft ends and art begins. Entry is in the €10 museum ticket (€5 reduced, free under 18), and the museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Look for
The 1963 knotted wall hanging
Look for a hanging 2.5 metres tall in wool, cord and linen, its wool weft knotted into a linen warp; it is the show's poster image.
The rust-red 1977 hanging
Rust-red Smyrna wool runs through a white cotton warp, woven on a high loom with extra threads knotted in, over 2.2 metres tall.
The 1965 hanging with metal rods
A woven cotton and wool hanging 2.5 metres high that takes in a frame of metal rods, one of the pieces that pushes off the flat wall.
The 1979 metal spiral
A work of wool and a metal spiral, about 1.3 by 1.4 metres, where Dawo mixes hardware into the weave.
The 1970 movable fabric
A plain-weave strip over three metres long whose weft threads have been cut, so the cloth is left loose and movable.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want pictures or stories in your textiles: Dawo deliberately wove no motifs and no narratives.
With kids
Under-18s get in free.
Also at Kunstgewerbemuseum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Sofie Dawo. Textile ExperimentsPhoto: Jochum Rodgers, Berlin
- Daniel Chodowiecki, 1726–1801. Images of the Enlightenment in BerlinCourtesy of Gemäldegalerie
- Portraits! Surprising Encounters from Botticelli to LempickaStaatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders | Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie / Jochen Littkemann, © Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026
- Ruin and Rush. Berlin 1910–1930Photo: Neue Nationalgalerie – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
- KunstgewerbemuseumMarsupium / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- GemäldegalerieOursana / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Neue NationalgalerieEvgenii Salganik / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Gropius BauManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0