Judith Scott’s woven sculptural works range in size and shape: some are several feet long, lie nearly flat, and rise only a few inches off of the ground. Others seem to hold a center of gravity from which they unfurl in all directions. And still others amass vertically as if supported by an inner tension. The surfaces of every work are covered in many strands of yarn and strips of fabric that weave and interface. Networks of knots secure the fibers in some places. Colors, though often bright, shift subtly at times, creating ripples and waves across the surface planes. Something, or perhaps many things, are inside of each sculpture and lend shape to the overall construction. Often this scaffolding is hidden beneath the layers of yarn, but sometimes an inner element is exposed by the fiber surround and integrated into the sculpture’s outermost layer.

Scott’s documented artmaking began when she was forty-three years old. On April 1, 1987, she began working at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California. At that time, Creative Growth was already well into its second decade functioning as a studio workshop and exhibition space supporting the work of disabled adults. Scott had Down Syndrome and was deaf from birth, and at the age of seven, she was separated from her family and institutionalized at two different facilities in Ohio. She moved to California and began working at Creative Growth only after her twin sister, Joyce, became her legal guardian. Scott spent five days a week at the studio, working at the same table at which she also chose to eat lunch. She focused on one work at a time, day after day, before indicating with body language that she had reached the end of her process with a given sculpture.

Brooke Wyatt, 2024

Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).