Nazmiyal Rugs on Exhibition at the Museum

Visitors to the Whitney Museum of American Art will have the opportunity to see an unprecedented collection of works from painter and sculptor Paul Thek displayed on a dramatic backdrop of antique carpets from the Nazmiyal Collection. In the first U.S. retrospective since the influential artist's death, the New Yorker's work returns to his hometown in this highly-anticipated exhibition billed as a one of the season's must-see museum events.

Born in Brooklyn in 1933, Thek was a New York-native who attended Pratt Institute and the prestigious Cooper Union before befriending luminaries such as Susan Sontag and Tennessee Williams. As a classically trained artist, Thek's first galley exhibition in 1957 was comprised of fairly traditional works. After returning from travels in Europe, Thek gained notoriety for exhibitions of hyper-realistic sculptures in NYC's prestigious Stable and Pace Galleries.

Known as the artist's artist, Paul Thek is famous for his life-like creations of human limbs and hunks of meat made from wax, wrapped in latex, and trapped inside Plexiglas boxes. Bugs, flies, and other gory details were often added by the artist for effect. In addition to bionic limbs encased in leather amour, Thek was one of the first artists to created large-scale installations and controlled artistic environments using short-lived materials.

Since its establishment, The Whitney Museum has preserved the art of living American artists and contemporaries. For years, Paul Thek has been known internationally. Now, his cutting-edge works are returning to New York for a limited time to celebrate the legacy of an artist that defied classification and still maintains an original style more than twenty years after his death.

Nazmiyal Collection is pleased to provide carpets for this unprecedented exhibition and retrospective of Paul Thek art curated by The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, and a number of cooperating partners. For exhibit information visit:

http://www.whitney.org/Exhibitions/PaulThek.

Whitney Museum of American Art
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