A Monumental Texas Wildflower Hanging Tapestry: Bluebonnets. . Helena Hernmarck (Sweden, 1941-). 1979. Wool, linen a... (Total: 2 Items)

Description

A Monumental Texas Wildflower Hanging Tapestry: Bluebonnets

Helena Hernmarck (Sweden, 1941-)
1979
Wool, linen and cotton
Unmarked
132 inches high x 231 inches wide

This Texas Bluebonnets tapestry portrays individual blue flower-stalks with photo-realistic accuracy in a naturalistic setting beneath full sunlight, the foreground rendered in crisp detail and transitioning to a contrasting dark background with blurred focus; the 11 feet 4 inches x 19 feet 3 inches format of the tapestry required 29 weeks of continuous work for Hernmark to complete in her Soho studio.

Born in Stockholm in 1941, Hernmarck trained at the Handarbetets Vanner (Weaving School) during her early teen years, then attended the Konstfackskolan (University College of Arts, Crafts & Designs) from 1959-63. She began completing corporate commissions in the late 1960s, including Cunard Steamship Company and the Swedish Embassy in London.

In 1973, Hernmarck was awarded the American Institute of Architects Craftsmanship Medal. She lived and worked in Canada and England prior to establishing residency in the US in 1975. Steeped in the rich Swedish textile tradition, Hernmarck created a professional career as textile artist by focusing on the small, often-overlooked beauties of life, and presenting them on a grand, architectural scale. Working with customized yarns prepared for her in her native Sweden, Hernmarck uses a carpet loom to create monumental tapestries that are well-suited to her numerous corporate commissions. Bluebonnets serves as an excellent example of Hernmarck's artistic vision in terms of high quality, famous commission, photo-realistic detail, textile medium, larger-than-life scale, and mundane subject glorified.

Bluebonnets typifies the artist's understanding of the mechanics of visual perception of color, light and shadow for the production of loomed photo-realism. Her characteristically deft ability to translate the flat medium of woven threads into a large-scale and three-dimensional visual experience has been central to her career.

Hernmarck's textile art has been included in numerous important permanent collections and exhibitions. The following is a partial listing: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, (solo exhibition); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden; Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York; Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio.

Corporate commissions include:
Federal Reserve Bank, Boston; Stanford University Library; Johnson & Johnson Baby Products; Pitney Bowes: and Kellogg Company.

While continuing her artistic career, Hernmarck also has had an academic career, teaching at Rhode Island School of Design and Split Rock. She also serves as speaker at numerous universities and museums around the world.

Provenance:
Commissioned in 1979 for the Dallas Centre, a Dallas office and hotel complex, built by real estate developer, Vincent Cerrozza, and designed by Harry Cobb, of I.M. Pei & Partners
Purchased by Trammell Crow, in conjunction with his purchase of the Dallas Centre, in 1982 and installed in the Anatole Hotel's Chantilly Lobby Entrance
Later installed in the Atrium, First Floor to the Mensware Mart of the World Trade Center in 2002

Exhibited:
Bluebonnets was loaned to the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York for a special three-month exhibition in 1999.



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