German artist Rosemarie Trockel’s diverse practice draws from a variety of sources, including technology, natural history, politics, and popular culture. While her oeuvre includes film, video, ceramics, clothing, drawing, collage, and sculpture, she is best known for her knitted works, which engage both the history of the Cold War and deep-seated gender norms by transforming material commonly associated with “women’s work” into fine art. This repositioning is visible in works such as Untitled (Made in Western Germany), 1987, in Glenstone’s collection. Made two years before Germany’s reunification, from a distance the knitted triptych reads like a monochromatic painting—shades of black on three panels. Upon closer inspection, it reveals a more complicated form: the machine-knitted wool is pulled taut on a wood frame, revealing the repeated phrase MADE IN WESTERN GERMANY.

–Carly Davis, from the Glenstone Field Guide