The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 8, 2026

A horizontally oriented off-white envelope is inked with thin, black handwritten addresses at the top-left and center. In the upper right corner sits a circular black postmark from February 13, 1979, overlapping a collaged postage stamp featuring an American flag and "USA 15c." Horizontal ink lines streak from the postmark across the stamp's right edge. The paper has a subtly textured surface.

Envelope

1979

Lenore Tawney

(American, 1907–2007)
America
pen and black ink and collage
Overall: 9 x 16.5 cm (3 9/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
Gift of Katharine Kuh 1981.195.2
© Lenore G. Tawney Foundation
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Lenore Tawney was a pioneering fiber artist known for large-scale public installations, but her postcard collages were personal missives to close friends on an intimate scale.

Description

This is one of 44 postcard collages in the CMA’s collection that the textile artist Lenore Tawney sent through the mail to her friend, the art dealer, curator, and critic Katherine Kuh between 1969 and 1981. Using natural objects and ephemera that she compiled over a lifetime, Tawney’s collages display the artist’s personal visual vocabulary and poetic response to materials. Recurring images—such as eggs, feathers, birds, baby animals, crosses, and circles—engage with universal themes such as vulnerability, resilience, infinity, and spirituality.
  • {{cite web|title=Envelope|url=false|author=Lenore Tawney|year=1979|access-date=08 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1981.195.2