About the edition

This 100% superfine cashmere blanket by Rachel Whiteread is exclusive to House of Voltaire. The artist has worked on these blankets in support of Studio Voltaire's Capital Project. A transformative £2.8 million project now in its exciting final stages, creating 42% more artists’ studios, renovated exhibition space and 233% new public spaces including a dedicated learning space, public garden, café and the first–ever permanent House of Voltaire.

Produced by master Scottish craftspeople, the double–sided jacquard technique achieves a design–rich finish. The front face of the blanket showcases the artist's artwork with a muted birdseye pattern on the underside. The blanket has a noticeably soft handle and luxurious heavyweight feel.  

About the artist

Rachel Whiteread is one of Britain's leading contemporary sculptors. 

Born in London in 1963, she studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic from 1982-85 and sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1985-87. She shot to public attention in 1993 with her sculpture, "House," a life-sized replica of the interior of a condemned terraced house in London's East End which provoked intense public debate until it was eventually demolished in 1994. She was the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993.

Over the last decade she has developed a significant international reputation, creating major public works in both Europe and the United States. Her winning proposal for the Holocaust memorial at the Judenplatz in Vienna was one of the most prestigious sculptural commissions in Europe in the 1990s. This piece involved placing the cast interior of a library, including imprints from the books on their shelves, into the centre of the square. It was unveiled in October 2000. She represented the UK at the 1997 Venice Biennale and created "Monument" for the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2001. Her "Water Tower" (1998) was just reinstalled on the roof of the Museum of Modern Art, New York this autumn.

She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at museums including, 'Internal Objects' Gagosian, London (2021); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010) travelled to Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas and Tate Britain, London; Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2008); Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2004); Serpentine Gallery, London (2001); Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2001) travelled to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Tate Liverpool (1996) travelled to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Kunsthalle Basel (1994).

Her work is held in museum collections worldwide including Tate, London; Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;  Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts Boston; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to art.