CCS Woodward Lecture Series: Thomas Murray and Kristal Hale

Join us for an intimate evening celebrating the history and impact of textile and fiber art as a discipline. Thomas Murray and Kristal Hale, textile collector and textile conservator respectively, will contextualize the iconography, ritual use, historic preservation and scientific analysis of famed ship cloths including the Tampan, Palepai and Tapis. Closing remarks to be delivered by textile and fiber artist Gerhardt Knodel, followed by an audience Q&A session.

Thomas Murray is an independent researcher, collector and private dealer of Asian and Tribal art with an emphasis on Indonesian sculpture and textiles, as well as animistic art from other varied cultures. He also features Indian Trade Cloths from the 14th-18th Centuries. A HALI magazine contributing editor for the last 30 years, he serves as their "in-house" expert on all ethnographic textiles, with more than 50 publications. His recent books, “Textiles of Japan” and “Textiles of Indonesia” were met with critical acclaim. Thomas Murray is Past President of ATADA, The Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association and he served a three-year term as a member of President Obama's Cultural Property Advisory Committee at the State Department. Thomas Murray continues to consult with museums and private clients internationally.

Kristal Hale is Conservator of Textiles at the Conservation Center of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She holds an MA in art conservation with a textile specialization from the Bern University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the Abegg-Stiftung, Switzerland. Kristal was an Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Fellow at The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. As someone who is engaged in the intersection of heritage preservation and contemporary museum practices, Kristal is a board member of Tracing Patterns Foundation, Berkeley, CA, working to support conservation education in Indonesia and greater Southeast Asia.

Gerhardt Knodel has been associated with the development of contemporary work in textiles for more than four decades. Early studies at UCLA and California State University inspired his interest in generating new applications for textiles in architecture. Opportunities to design for the theater further inspired ideas as to ways that fabric could be used to expressively shape interior spaces in both domestic and commercial environments.
Simultaneous with building numerous commissioned works in the United States, he explored the expressive nature of textiles within the context of art, producing a large body of work that has been exhibited extensively in many parts of the world.
For 25 years he led the graduate program in Fibers at Cranbrook Academy of Art, working with many of this country’s most outstanding artists and designers, and in 1995 began a twelve year involvement at Cranbrook as director of the academy.
In 2007 he returned to full time studio practice with game playing strategies that allowed him to freely extend his interests in exploring new dimensions of textiles and their vital relationship with people throughout time.
His unfettered interest in discovery continues, supported with significant recognition by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Japan-American Friendship Fellowship, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The James Renwick Alliance, the State of Michigan, and the Gold Medal awarded by the American Craft Council.

Host or Publisher College for Creative Studies