The show at Charleston in Lewes of the multi-media work of Grayson Perry (until March 9), and the outstanding Tadek Beutlich exhibition at Ditchling Museum (until June 22), reflect the growing prestige of the ancient art of textile making. The best work out there rivals masterpieces in all other media. My recent conversations with gallery owners reveal a new surge of interest in contemporary work in this medium in the United States, and that more and more British collectors are picking up fine pieces up and down the market. There is a rich store to be explored.

The briefest survey of art history will reveal the aristocratic pedigree of work in fabric. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, large-scale, highly wrought tapestries woven in wool and silk were standard expressions of religious and ceremonial imagery (did you see the magnificent Tudor wall- hangings in the recent TV series Wolf Hall?) There is a clever double-layered device in many of these works, reproducing in tapestry the intricate patterns in the woven woollen garments worn by the human subjects they depict.

The tradition has been maintained. The Gobelins factory in Paris, founded by Louis XIV, continues to produce tapestry to this day. The medium was enthusiastically embraced by the Modern Movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Under the guidance of Gunta Stölzl, trained as a painter, the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus was transformed from the production of artisan pieces to the design of industrial and fine art. Anni and Josef Albers followed her, easily transitioning between different media. Anni Albers’ and Gunta Stölzl’s carpets rival anything hanging on a collector’s wall. At The Courtauld Institute of Art you can see excellent woven work fashioned by members of the Bloomsbury Group.

The work of Sonia Delaunay stands out among the finest expressions of fibre art. Born in Russia at the end of the 19th century and trained as a painter in Germany before WW1, she established herself as a colourist. She and her husband Robert Delaunay set up a separate school of abstract expressionist art – Simultanism – based upon the perceptual interdependence and interactions of colours. This vision led her from two-dimensional work to the creation of intense multicoloured fabric design of extraordinary depth and variety, taking her into high fashion and the design of fabrics for the retail market (this collector sometimes wears a Delaunay silk necktie). No-one who visited the retrospective exhibition of Delaunay’s work at Tate Modern in 2015 could possibly forget the magnificent overcoat she created for Greta Garbo, the autumnal glory of the dense design of the fabric glowing in its glass showcase.

Today’s artists in textiles also have the gift of flexibility of working within different media. As Grayson Perry’s show in Lewes has demonstrated, gloriously enjoyable, witty and moving work can, in the hands of a highly skilled practitioner, be executed as well in ceramics and fabric as on canvas and paper.

Beutlich’s work, executed in parallel with his printmaking in various homes, including Bromley, Spain and Ditchling, embraced an astonishing range of materials [see page 47]. Out of this mix he conjured fascinating wall hangings and other abstract or semi-abstract forms, some highly skeletal, some in vivid colours, others in more neutral tones reflecting the places where he lived. The Ditchling exhibition is organised in collaboration with Emma Mason’s Eastbourne gallery, where she still has a number of the master’s works for sale at excellent prices.

Collectors in Sussex are not limited in their choice. At the recent London Art Fair, the Cavaliero Finn gallery was showing two outstanding works in woven tapestry by Katherine Swailes, who works in West Sussex with Caron Penney (see ROSA #8). Her rendering, in Sussex Landscape and Verdure Field, of the subtleties and shifting tones and shapes of the Downs rewarded close reading. Petersfield Museum and its shop is the best place to become acquainted with their work.

Closely linked to West Dean, both as alumna and teacher, is Alice Kettle, who like so many others trained first as a painter, but now ranks as one of Britain’s foremost fibre artists. Represented for some eight years by Candida Stevens in Chichester, which closes in June, she is moving to the prestigious Bo Lee and Workman gallery in Bruton, Somerset, where her startling figurative work in thread on linen will command higher prices.

Beyond these established names there is much more to look at. Notable are Hastings Craft Weekend (May 24/25), and Sussex Craft Week (June 14-22), which enjoys a partnership with West Dean, plus many other galleries and studios. Both promise to bring up a rich seam of discoveries and bargains.

On display at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft until June 2025. Then available to purchase from the Beutlich Estate. Please contact emmamason.co.uk regarding price and delivery