Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1947

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2023

2025

  • You found it!

Textile, High Mass

This is a Textile. It was designed by Dorothy Wright Liebes.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from National Museum of American History as part of A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes.

It is dated 1947. Its medium is cotton, rayon, and wool. It is a part of the Exhibitions department.


With its jewel-toned colors and myriad reflective materials including cellophane, beads, and metallic yarns, High Mass fuses the more elaborate compositions of Liebes’s early weavings with the dramatic palette of her postwar designs. It is not known if this panel, exhibited often during her lifetime, was created for a specific interior setting.

It is credited Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 223.5 × 121.9 cm (7 ft. 4 in. × 48 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318805417/ |title=Textile, High Mass |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=13 May 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>