Gloria F. Ross was an American designer known for her work in textiles. She often worked in collaboration with painters, including her sister, Helen Frankenthaler.
Ross was inspired to translate Frankenthaler’s 1969 Provincetown Study into a wool wall hanging. In order to achieve the color gradations in Frankenthaler’s original painting, Ross applied a handwoven tapestry weave rather than her the coarser hooked-rug technique she had previously used.
The weaving team at the Dovecot Studios made the artist’s proof and the first four editions. However, Ross sought to produce an even finer texture for the color transitions. The fifth edition, the current lot, was woven by the independent tapestry artist Micheline Henry in Aubusson.
The final work is the product of intense collaboration between several studios and artists. The Dovecot workshop commented, “The success of the translation of this image to the tapestry was achieved by drawing on a number of weaving techniques… [We used] a number of colors, blended together, interlocking and overlapping in a subtle weave…punctuated by delicate lines of carefully chosen, broken color.”