Each year I visit the Jane Kahan Gallery at 73rd and Madison Ave in New York. According to their website, they are “the largest dealer of quality modern master tapestries in North America.” They specialize in tapestries from Aubusson, renditions of works by famous artists, including Romare Beardon (my favorite), Fernando Leger, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, and Rene Magritte. Some years the pieces on display are mostly the same as the year before. This year it was a whole new crop (!), because the ones that had been on display are at an art fair in California.
Unfortunately–and I’m sure due to operator error–I lost the images I took of the catalog information for these pieces, so I don’t have the titles and sizes to report.
There were a couple of Alexander Calder images. It was interesting to see how they were woven; most of this one was woven at about 6 epi, and the yellow star was woven at a coarser sett, obviously on double wefts.
Some of the black weft had a metallic sheen, and the white was smooth and shiny, too.
The Leger tapestries! I love them. I think his thick outlines of the bodies and shapes are so suited to tapestry.The perfection of the slightly “jaggedy” outlining reminds me of famed tapestry weaver Archie Brennan.
Look at this marvelous abstracted face, with sensitive colors in the hatching inside the outline.
A beautiful hand.
The other Leger tapestry. (I suppose I could have moved away that Picasso plate….)
The ball, a boy, and the woman. Wonderful shapes.
A Marc Chagall tapestry had wonderful details to study. Look how the hair is depicted.
A beautiful fish detail rounds out my tapestry eye-candy post for today.
Thanks for this info. I live within walking distance of this gallery and didn’t know about it.