JACK LENOR LARSEN, TEXTILE DESIGNER AND FOUNDER OF LONGHOUSE RESERVE, DISCUSSES ART, CRAFT, AND DESIGN ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 16th AT THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM

On Friday, January 16th at 6pm, Parrish Art Museum Director Terrie Sultan will lead a conversational program created in conjunction with special exhibitions on view that feature works using nontraditional materials and techniques with internationally renowned  textile designer, author, and collector Jack Lenor Larsen.  The founder of the 16-acre LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, Larsen will discuss the intersection of art, craft, and design. Special exhibitions including Steven and William Ladd: Mary Queen of the Universe, and Alan Shields: In Motion, will be discussed in terms of craft practices such as beading, sewing, and weaving.

Larsen, an advocate of traditional and contemporary crafts, founded his self-named textile company in 1952. It became a resource for signature fabrics that began with his award-winning hand-woven works of natural yarns in random repeats. Since the 1950s Larsen has designed thousands of fabric patterns and textiles, many associated with the modernist architecture of the time. He is credited with introducing the American public to the techniques of ikat and batik, among others, and designed fabrics for corporations such as PanAm Airlines and private clients including Marilyn Monroe.

Larsen is one of only four Americans honored with an exhibition at the Palais du Louvre. His fabrics are in permanent collections at museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Stedelikj Museum of Art, Amsterdam. Larsen has earned dozens of awards and acknowledgments during his career, including New York School of Interior Design Lifetime Achievement Award, Smithsonian—Archives of American Art Medal, American Crafts Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

LongHouse Reserve [above] was built as a case study to exemplify a creative approach to contemporary life. The grounds present the designed landscape as an art form and offer a diversity of sites for sculpture installations, drawn from a collection of more than 60 contemporary sculptures including works by Alexander Calder, Dale Chihuly, Eric Fischl, Willem de Kooning, Gaston Lachaise, Sol LeWitt, and Yoko Ono. The four-level, 13,000 square foot building was inspired by the Japanese shrine at Ise, the building is 13,000 square feet with 18 spaces on four levels.

KDHamptons explores Longhouse Reserve

Friday Nights at the Parrish Art Museum are made possible, in part, by the generous support of The Corcoran Group. Public funding provided by Suffolk County. The Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.

Event Details: A Conversation with Jack Lenor Larsen
Friday, January 16, 2015, 6:00pm
$10 | Free for Members, Children, and Students

Address: 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill; Phone:(631) 283-2118; www.parrishart.org