Toile de Jouy, with its monochromatic clusters of fine-line pastoral illustrations printed on cotton or linen against a pale background, has often conveyed a genteel narrative neoclassicism that telegraphs refinement and sophistication. But the self-taught textile artist Richard Saja, whose studio is in the Hudson Valley, New York, town of Catskill, is determined to subvert such visual traditions—while honoring toile’s exquisite complexity. With wry humor, deft social observation, and unparalleled needlecraft, Saja embellishes historic-inspired toiles as well as Aubusson-style carpets and his own designs with vivid, unexpected hues.
Artist Richard Saja in his studio.
Pieter Estersohn
Seasonal Allegories, 2019.
Richard SajaFrom massive textile panels commissioned by architect and designer David Rockwell for the redo of Commander’s Palace Restaurant in New Orleans to a sneaker collaboration with Opening Ceremony to a new fabric for Schumacher, Saja has transformed toile into a surprisingly fresh and contemporary medium. His interventions interrupt the anonymity of the pattern’s traditional tableaux, rendering them a riot of color and commentary: A country gentleman’s hair is set aflame in shades of marigold and magenta; a reclining shepherdess is dressed in a macabre black dress and devilish horns; a courtier’s face is obscured beneath an ebony mask.
Queer, 2022.
Richard Saja
Tempest, 2022.
Richard SajaSaja’s road to an unconventional art career began more than two decades ago. After attending art school, he worked on a creative team at a big New York City advertising agency, but eventually left to cofound a small design company that offered, among other items, pillows that he hand-embroidered on toile; the idea came to him one early morning as he was rousing himself from a dream.
Tempest, 2022.
Richard SajaThat his work has helped recontextualize toile, the ultimate bucolic signifier of old-world elegance, by way of classic embroidery technique is an irony that does not escape him. “At first, I rejected any association with craft,” he says, “because I thought it wasn’t taken seriously. But things have really changed. The wall between fine art and craft has finally broken down.”
The Fourth Dimension
In Saja’s hands, a single motif holds endless possibility. Here, four different works—clockwise from top left, Laffydaffy, 2023; She Is Moving to Describe the World, 2021; Lady Partington, 2019; and Elective Infinities, 2022—explore the many facets of the individual.
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 17 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
