Meet Alice Adams – In the Studio
Adams’s extraordinary sculptural works of the 1960s are of equivalent power and originality. Born in New York in 1930, Adams trained as a weaver, with her tapestry and woven form works central to the American fibre art movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, she began creating sculpture and site-specific land art, weaving industrial materials, latex, and more into her mesmerising works. Her work was included in the groundbreaking 1966 exhibition Eccentric Abstraction curated by Lucy Lippard.
Experience her work in our five-star exhibition Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams, exploring three pioneering artists who, in 1960s New York, produced startling new bodies of work turning modern sculpture on its head.
This is the first exhibition of Alice Adams’s work in the UK, and the most substantial in a museum context.
Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams
Until 14 Sep 2025
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New Acquisition: Blue Plunge (1966)
We are also delighted to have recently acquired Blue Plunge (1966) into The Courtauld Gallery collection. Before becoming a sculptor, Alice Adams Adams trained as a weaver – an experience that is recalled in the cord-like, interlaced lines that she used to construct this drawing. It formed part of a group of works on paper, made in the mid-1960s, that were closely related to sculptures Adams was then producing from steel cables and other industrial materials. This example relates to a cylindrical, roped work of 1964 titled Fluorescent Structure, though its deep blue colour suggests a pensive mood.
Limited Edition: Alice Adams Untitled 2025
Exclusive to The Courtauld, the limited edition print, taken from a drawing, Untitled 2024, was developed in partnership with Alice Adams. This limited edition print is taken from a drawing, Untitled 2024, that Alice Adams created specifically for this project. The artist has kindly donated the original drawing for the limited edition to The Courtauld Collection.
Since the 1960s, Alice Adams (American, b.1930) has created abstract drawings in pencil and markers against the grid lines of a lightweight graph paper. These delicate markings reference the chicken wire, mesh and chain-link fencing used in her radical sculpture of the period, and ultimately derive from her background as a weaver.
The paper for the edition was selected to recreate the attributes of the artist’s paper of choice. One of an edition of 50, plus 5 artist’s proofs, hand numbered and signed by the artist. All profits from the prints go towards supporting The Courtauld.
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