In celebration of the milestone 20th anniversary of the National Design Awards, this week’s Object of The Day posts honor National Design Award winners. Citadel is among the early wallpaper designs Jack Lenor Larsen created for Karl Mann. This is a striking, intense pattern that needs to be viewed up close or zoomed in on...
This is another wallpaper sample book that was recently photographed as part of the museum’s mass digitization. The book contains a compilation of three different collections: two collections designed by Jack Lenor Larsen with a total of twelve patterns, and the third collection by William Skilling with another four patterns. Larsen designed his first collection...
Architectural commissions were an important part of Jack Lenor Larsen’s work, and frequently provided the impetus for the development of new technologies. His first commission was for Lever House, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Completed in 1952, Lever House was one of the first glass curtain-wall office towers in the country....
From the Object of the Day archives, Landis II (1973) designed by Richard Landis in collaboration with Jack Lenor Larsen and now in the museum's permanent collection.
In 1972, Larsen was invited by The Thai Silk Company to design a collection in tribute to their founder, Jim Thompson. Architect, CIA agent, silk entrepreneur and avid Asian art collector, Thompson had launched The Thai Silk Company in Bankok in 1948 and become an authority in the industry, earning the nickname “the Silk King...
In addition to studying traditional textiles around the world, Jack Lenor Larsen firmly believed in investing in the future, and in devoting resources to developing new textile technologies. He frequently use-tested his latest fabrics in his own home. “Every year at my Gramercy Park apartment I redesigned the interior as a means of experimenting with...
Conquistador, introduced as part of Jack Lenor Larsen Incorporated’s 1967 Andean Collection, became one of the company’s signature fabrics. Its complex design beautifully melds two of Larsen’s numerous passions: admiration for the arts of the Andes, and a fascination with resist-dye techniques. A great admirer and student of the world’s dye-resist techniques, Larsen published his...
Jack Lenor Larsen is known for being one of the most prolific textile craftsmen of the later twentieth century, creating a unique range of both woven and printed textiles. What is lesser known is that Larsen was also the designer of wallcoverings, creating some of the first wallcoverings for New York wallpaper studio Karl Mann...
Remoulade developed out of a hand-woven wall hanging Jack Lenor Larsen made during the summer of 1954 at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, where he remains an Honorary Chair. The original hanging, a weft-faced weave, used over seventy different yarns, including cotton, silk, wool, jute, and Lurex, inserted randomly, to create a richly...
