Join us for a talk with tapestry artist Helena Hernmarck and moderator Matilda McQuaid on Hernmarck’s latest commission: two sets of monumental tapestries for a residential lobby at 35 Hudson Yards in New York City, Flowers and Maple Tree. The program will also include a screening of the documentary Hernmarck Tapestries at Hudson Yards (20 min.), which showcases Helena’s ongoing collaboration with weavers and spinners in Sweden. The film also explores the complex design and installation requirements for the unique commission, and highlights the relevance of tapestry as an art form in contemporary architectural settings.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Helena Hernmarck (b. Stockholm, 1941) is a tapestry artist and weaver best known for her monumental, commissioned tapestries designed for architectural settings. Active since the 1960s, Hernmarck has worked with architects including Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, George Nelson, Chuck Bassett, and Kevin Roche. Her tapestries are in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Matilda McQuaid is Acting Director of Curatorial and previously Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She oversees curatorial and exhibition programming often working collaboratively with other Smithsonian museums on projects and exhibitions. As a curator she has organized nationally and internationally acclaimed architecture and design exhibitions with accompanying publications including Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance (2005), Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay (2011), Tools: Extending Our Reach (2014), and Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial (2019). Formerly at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) for 15 years where she curated over 30 exhibitions, she is also an accomplished author and editor on art, architecture, and design, with many books, exhibition catalogues and articles to her credit.
Images (L-R)—Helena Hernmarck (Photo by Ross Mantle); Maple Tree, 2020 (Photo by Norman McGrath); Matilda McQuaid