MEET THE DESIGNER
New York-based artist Ethan Cook is known for his minimalist paintings on self-produced canvas, making the surface of the canvas itself the focus of his work. For HAY, Cook has reproduced his distinctive, abstract art in the form of a rug with Flat Works. We visited Ethan in his New York studio to learn about his design process.
BEHIND THE DESIGN
FINDING INSPIRATION
“My work is inspired by nature, the history of abstraction, music, architecture, movement, humanity, and bodies in space. I also looked at the rugs of Frank Stella and other artists to see how they translated wall works into floor ones. All of this helped in the process of retaining my own artistic style, a soft-edge geometric abstraction, and shifting into a new medium.”
NOTES ON COLOR
“The Flat Works Rugs are all based on previous woven works of mine. The artist Sol LeWitt has said, ‘I take one color I love and put it next to another color I love.’ I place a battery of colors on my table, then move them around and squint until they achieve an equilibrium of harmony and disharmony.”
