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Object Timeline

1950

  • Work on this object began.

1959

  • Work on this object ended.

2001

  • We acquired this object.

2011

2014

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Textile Design: The Dance

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Angelo Testa. It is dated 1950s and we acquired it in 2001. Its medium is pen and black ink on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

This evocative linear design, for a printed textile, presents an abstraction of motion in space, a concept that Testa would have been introduced to at the New Bauhaus School of Design by the avant-garde artist and designer, László Moholy-Nagy.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.

  • Bracelet (Netherlands)
  • bent steel wire.
  • Museum purchase from Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Fund.
  • 1993-114-3
  •
  • Dancing Peasant Woman Figure
  • enameled porcelain.
  • The Henry and Ludmilla Shapiro Collection; Partial gift and partial purchase....
  • 1989-41-120

Our curators have highlighted 12 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Textile, Filo
  • linen.
  • Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
  • 1996-83-1
  •
  • Sample, Lines
  • cotton.
  • Gift of Alexander H. Girard.
  • 1969-165-154
  •

Its dimensions are

34 x 42.2cm (13 3/8 x 16 5/8in.)

It has the following markings

Stamped in blue on verso, center: ANGELO TESTA & COMPANY/49 EAST ONTARIO STREET/CHICAGO 11, ILLINOIS

Cite this object as

Drawing, Textile Design: The Dance; Designed by Angelo Testa (American, 1921–1984); USA; pen and black ink on paper; 34 x 42.2cm (13 3/8 x 16 5/8in.) ; Museum purchase through gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt; 2001-9-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18692603/ |title=Drawing, Textile Design: The Dance |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=5 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>