Jack Lenor Larsen To Speak At Parrish Art Museum

While traditional crafts were once static and even facsimiles of other artwork, modern design and art are more fluid, inspired by various mediums but stamped with an artist’s distinct style. This convergence will be explored at the Parrish Art Museum when Jack Lenor Larsen, the founder of LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton as well as a textile designer, collector and author, discusses the intersection of art, craft and design with museum director Terrie Sultan on Friday, January 16, at 6 p.m.

“Jack Lenor Larsen has been a major innovator in textile design, and his fabrics have been used by everyone from Frank Lloyd Wright and Eero Saarinen to Edward Wormley and Marilyn Monroe,” said Ms. Sultan from the Water Mill museum. “Lending his voice and vast experience to our two current exhibitions—Alan Shields and William and Steven Ladd, that both incorporate fabric and embellishment—will be a remarkable experience.”

Mr. Larsen founded his self-named textile company in 1952. It became a resource for signature fabrics that began with his hand-woven works of natural yarns in random repeats. Since the 1950s, he has designed thousands of fabric patterns and textiles, including those for Pan Am Airways and for private clients. He uses traditional and modern weaving techniques, drawing inspiration from textile traditions throughout the world.

Sitting in a well-lit room with a glass ceiling and large windows with garden views, Mr. Larsen said last week that he began his career by studying architecture—“without drawing wonderfully well.” Fortunately, “we had to do a little weaving, and I was better at that, so I became a weaver,” he explained.

After getting his master’s at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, he moved to New York City and found success came rather easily to him. That success was, in part, due to a growing movement at the time, where craftsmen and designers were straying from more traditional styles and pushing boundaries. In the 1960s, for example, most tapestries were replicas of paintings. “The painter made the image and we were only to try to copy it, and that didn’t seem very exciting to me,” Mr. Larsen said. Instead, weavers began making their own images. In addition, artisans were exploring the use of any material that could be made into a textile.

Upon discovering Mr. Shields’s work, Mr. Larsen was surprised to find the same unique crafts and nontraditional materials that were in his own work. “Allen had been making similar pieces, but I don’t know how much he knew about what we were doing,” he said.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Larsen has worked in 60 countries and had 30 showrooms around the world. His fabrics are in permanent collections at museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Friday’s program at the Parrish is planned in conjunction with the museum’s exhibitions “Steven and William Ladd: Mary Queen of the Universe,” and “Alan Shields: In Motion,” which incorporate craft practices such as beading, sewing, and weaving as well as other nontraditional techniques and materials. Admission costs $10; advance reservations are recommended. More information can be found at parrishart.org.