Textiles

Textiles have been a major part of the Whitworth’s collection since the gallery first opened

Our textile holdings are acknowledged as internationally important, and their presence here reflect both Manchester’s role in the history of world textiles and the gallery’s early industrial links. Today, the Whitworth is home to around 20,000 textiles from across the world. They range in date from the third century AD to the present. 

Highlights include textile fragments and garments used and worn in first millennium Egypt (c. 300-900 AD), Mediterranean and Islamic embroideries, South Asian fabrics, French and Italian silks, the work of designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, industrial textiles including the major archive of ABC Wax as well as artists’ work that uses textiles as a medium.  

We have actively collected modern and contemporary textiles since the gallery first opened, acquiring art, craft and industrial design, with mass-produced printed and woven lengths complemented by a growing body of one-off art textiles – making visible the link between the Whitworth’s art collections and historic world textiles. 

While many of our exhibitions are made up from works in our permanent collection, the Whitworth has nothing on permanent display. For more information about our current and forthcoming exhibitions see what’s on at the gallery or find out more about the history of the Whitworth.

Lead image 

Eduardo Portillo (b. 1966); Maria Eugenia Davila (b. 1966), Guardian, 2006, T.2009.9 

This work is on display in Traces of Displacement (7 April 20 – 7 January 24)