Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator and Collector

May 28, 2004 - August 29, 2004

Landmark exhibition features 50 of the designer's most significant textiles and objects he collected over five decades.

The exhibition Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator and Collector offers intimate glimpses into the career and collections of the renowned weaver, designer, author, gardener and collector. Featured will be 50 of Larsen's most admired designs for fabrics, drawn from the historic archives of Larsen's firm and from corporate and museum collections.

These rare designs will be accompanied by nearly 100 works of art-ceramics, glass, wood, sculpture, fiber, and metalwork-collected by the artist over a lifetime dedicated to the arts.

The exhibition, which opens May 28 and runs through August 29, explores the full range of Larsen's creativity as a designer and collector. Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator and Collector is co-organized by the Museum of Arts & Design in New York and the Stewart Program for Modern Design, in Montreal. After the exhibition's premiere at the Museum of Arts & Design, it will tour to other museums.

Metropolitan Home (May-June 2004) writes of the exhibition: "Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator and Collector explores the relationship between the connoisseur's eye of this titan of American textiles and his work. The exhibition, curated by David Revere McFadden and Mildred Constantine…spotlights 50 of Larsen's most significant creations-the linen-and-raw-silk Bahia Blind done in 1959…as well as some of the most important pieces in his own collections."

Architectural Digest Italy (May 2004) said: "A retrospective dedicated to the talent of the famous textile designer who dominated the American scene in the 20th century, influencing generations of artists and designers with his skills and his originality… Complementing the review are about 70 objects from all over the world, collected with passion by Larsen throughout his life…which bear witness to the inexhaustible fonts of inspiration that permeate his rich and daring artistic production."

Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator and Collector represents artifacts of four continents, as well as the work of major contemporary artists. Many of these works were acquired by Larsen when the artists were beginning their careers. The exhibition celebrates Larsen's eye for art by such well-known figures as Dale Chihuly, Dame Lucie Rie and Wharton Esherick, among others, as well as gifted artists from Japan, Korea, Colombia, Africa and India.

Larsen built his collection as he traveled around the world during the past half-century. Many of these works have been donated to LongHouse Reserve, Larsen's East Hampton house and gardens, now a foundation and museum.

Widely considered the dean of 20th century textile design, Larsen also has collected the crafts of world cultures and related contemporary art for the past 50 years. The exhibition concept, developed by co-curators David Revere McFadden, chief curator at the Museum of Arts & Design, and former Museum of Modern Art curator Mildred Constantine, is the unique synergy between Larsen's collection and his textile designs, touching on the nature of creativity itself.

Design greats Massimo and Lella Vignelli worked in collaboration with Larsen to design an exhibition installation that expresses Larsen's way of seeing. The exhibition will demonstrate how Larsen lives with his collection. The presentation includes the kind of groupings and environments that Larsen is known for, in which he juxtaposes his own designs with the artworks that have inspired him.

Themes
Five exhibition themes are developed on the basis of visual qualities and design elements: Light and Transparency, Surface and Texture, Pattern and Color, Form and Structure, and Context and Commissions. This last theme explores Larsen's work for major architects, beginning with his landmark textiles created for the newly opened Lever House in New York City in 1952. Within each theme textiles and objects are juxtaposed to illustrate the cross-fertilization of Larsen's collecting and designing.

Larsen's influence
David McFadden notes, "Jack Lenor Larsen's role as an innovator in fabric design, and as a mentor to young and emerging artists, and his passionate interest in superb craftsmanship from all around the globe, make this exhibition particularly memorable." According to co-curator Mildred Constantine, "There is an integrated duality in the life and work of the artist Jack Lenor Larsen. He is a weaver, a textile designer, a restless creator of works with emphatic bright and deeply saturated colors, of surprising and seductive patterns. He is also a landscape artist and a gardener. He has been an ardent collector of art and craft from his early days and his enduring bonds with contemporary artists make him unique in this field."

Catalogue
The comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue (Merrell, London and New York, $34.95), available in the Museum Store, includes essays by David McFadden and Mildred Friedman and contributions by Lotus Stack and Larsen himself. The catalogue includes a narrative chronology that completes this major new profile of a celebrated creator, world-traveling collector, and a friend to artists and artisans of all nations.

Sponsors
Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator and Collector and the accompanying catalogue were made possible through the generosity of Hunter Douglas Window Fashions and Cowtan & Tout, with additional support from The Coby Foundation, Ltd., in honor of The Bank of New York, the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, the Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, and the Director's Council of the Museum. Hunter Douglas, a longtime supporter of the Museum, has, like Cowtan & Tout, demonstrated a significant commitment to education and the development of technologies, both in the arts and in product design.