Incredible Connections

One week ago yesterday I visited the Collections Department of the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City, to see the entire series of Archie Brennan’s “Dersu Uzala” tapestries. I have seen them before, both numerous times in Archie and Susan’s (Susan Martin Maffei) home studio, and the last time in an exhibit in Garnerville, NY. In the exhibit the 12 tapestries ran along one long wall in the large gallery. It was my first time to see them all together, and it was exhilarating. The gallery is in an old textile warehouse, a brick building that I remember having dark brick walls in the gallery. I might be wrong about that. Perhaps some of the walls were white plaster. Odd thing, memory.

Here are the tapestries, carefully wrapped in archival tissue with an outer wrapping in something that looked like acetate, nestled in two boxes. I’m not sure I can put words to the thrill of watching each one get unwrapped and laid out on the viewing table.

The light was bright and diffused, a combination I have rarely seen, before being in that room. Between the quality of light and seeing the tapestries laid out horizontally, it was quite a different experience.

Such a thrill to see his techniques up close, the letters, the shadows on each streak of falling snow.

Here is one of my favorite in the s eries. All that beautiful woven surface,the subtle color changes, the wonderful lettering and landscape turning green….the rain. Now let’s take a closer look.

I thought I’d go straight home and practice based on these techniques. Hasn’t happened yet.

Let’s take a moment to watch one the tapestries being unfurled from its protective coverings:

Here is the subtlety of “Dersu” woven into the snowstorm.

Are you feeling the enthusiasm? It is such a unique experience to see these tapestries at this vantage point. All credit for these images goes to my son Chris who is quite smitten with this series. We were both astounded that these pieces will stay in New York. Many of Archie’s other works have gone to Scotland, to the Dovecot Studios and to the National Museum of Scotland.

Let’s look at “The Ravens-An Omen,” which is certainly the most dramatically graphic tapestry in this series.

The imagery is so strong, the colors so saturated. The surfaces are so smooth, with perfect selvedges. Really, I almost needed a break to sit down and recuperate a bit! I was reminded of a statement by one of Archie’s early students, Cheryl Thornton, at the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in Australia (now the Australian Tapestry Workshop). She said, “I still think of him sitting at the loom and the ease with which he sat there. There was something about his presence sitting…there was no struggle.”

A piece with a meandering slit! How did he do that?

I’d place a bet that all of us want to give this a try. Like his Penelope postcard woven to look like it’s on an angle (Page 103 in Archie Brennan: Tapestry as Modern Art). Those selvedges on either side of the slit are a marvel. (The bit of weft showing near the bottom of the slit is just weft that needs to be pushed to the back.)

And here is a view from a different angle. Huge thanks to Christopher for getting these images with so many creative details.

Archie was one with the act of weaving. It seemed to be part of his body, part of his mind and soul. There certainly didn’t ever appear to be any struggle when he sat at the loom. Perhaps all that struggle took place when he thought about a new design, and when he did drawings to express his ideas. I just know that I feel such a sense of awe mixed with a calm contentment when I look at his work, especially at close range.

My son took more than a hundred pictures during our visit. I wish I could share all of them with you. But there is more to this story.

One week later, which was yesterday, I was at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, CT. My guild had an exhibit there for the past five weeks, and yesterday was the day that our hanging committee took down the works. We finished in record time, which gave me time to see another exhibit on view at the museum with a friend of mine from the committee.

This is an exhibition of artworks by the Inuit and Cree communities of the Arctic region of Canada in the far north of Quebec. The region includes Cape Dorset as well as Pangnirtung which sits right at the edge of the Arctic Circle, and is where Archie and Susan taught weaving at the Pangnirtung Weaving Center. Archie wrote a compelling essay about the life style of these people that you can read on page 186 of the book. Now, just one week after spending time with the very tapestries that Archie designed at this very spot, I was seeing all kinds of artwork done by the people of that area. Five weeks earlier I had helped hang our Connecticut State guild’s biennial exhibit without knowing what was on view in a nearby gallery of this museum. There were no tapestries on display in this exhibit, likely because weaving is not a traditional artform there. It’s a land without sheep, for one thing.

The exhibit has hand blocked prints, photographs, drawings, and carvings. I enjoyed all of it, and more so because of knowing that Archie had been in that very place in the early 1990s.

This is the only photo I’ll share from the exhibit. It’s a watercolor by the Canadian man who studied the works of this community, photographed them, and made a documentary about them. He very much reminds of the Dersu Uzala story, where Dersu was hired to be a guide in the Siberian forest for a Russian surveyor who was exploring the area on behalf of the Russian government in the first few years of the 20th century. It was a stroke of serendipity to find this exhibit so soon after visiting Archie’s “Dersu Uzala” at the Cooper Hewitt.

I find this painting particularly compelling. It reminds me of Archie’s “Spring Rain” where the landscape is turning green in blocky shapes, like the blocky shapes of this ice flow. And the mountains rise up as huge blocks of rock. I am pulled to weave this, but we’ll see.

On view in the gallery was one episode of a 7-part documentary called “Leaving None Behind.” You can read about it here. The documentary film was made by the Canadian man who contributed so much to this exhibit, John Houston. Here is a trailer for the series. The documentary is available to rent on Vimeo, which you can access from the trailer.

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Unfinished

It’s been years since I’ve contributed to this blog. Archie continues to fill my time in wondrous ways, and I hope to begin sharing more things here. This post is not directly about Archie, but it is about the Dovecot Studios. The weavers have recently completely a 3-dimensional triptych tapestry celebrating the first seven women to attend university in Scotland to study medicine. It is an ephermal piece that depicts motion and fluidity with intensely saturated colors. I plan to see it in person in July. Meanwhile, how lucky some people will be to attend the opening later this month.

The Dovecot continues to honor the wisdom and creativity that Archie brought to tapestry, and his unique ability to keep a rather rare artform viable in modern times.

Every time I sit at the loom I think of Archie along with several of the Wednesday Group weavers who inspired me with the generosity we all shared with each other.

A Glimpse of Archie

How did Archie see himself?  He drew so many people over the course of his long career, and occasionally he drew himself.

During Archie’s years in Hawaii, did you know that he had a regular column in the “South Mauii Times” newspaper? His column was called “Artstalk,” a clever play on words, don’t you think?  He would write an article each week about some facet of art, and he always included a hand drawn illustration.  A few years ago, I borrowed Archie’s file of past articles for this column to choose a few to include in the book.  Perhaps this one is my favorite.

 

Loss in the Midst of Bounty

It’s a fact that we all march on with our lives, lurching or gliding, and then something stops us in our tracks. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Oh boy. So true. (Actually, I just googled that phrase, and it seems that it is attributed to someone named Allen Saunders who wrote an article for Readers’ Digest in 1957, with that phrase in it. There you go….the marvels of the internet. Most of us know this phrase from a wonderful John Lennon song, “Beautiful Boy.” If you’re interested, see this.)

Archie at Edinburgh College of Art, 1960s.

I did not mean to digress. Nothing can match that feeling of hurtling along through life and having all your plans stopped cold by an event, a moment after which nothing can ever be the same. During the morning of November 1, only 10 days ago, I learned that Archie Brennan had passed away during the afternoon of the previous day–Hallowe’en. At that moment all my whirling and spinning stopped. I know that thousands of others, across every continent, felt that same shock. Dear Archie…. he meant so much to everyone he encountered.

I imagine his many students and friends are in much the same position I’ve been in lately: struggling through current projects, delving into uncharted, creative ground, making progress and facing setbacks. The bounty of our work: I have too many projects going on at once, and I imagine you do too. Inspired chaos….well, hopefully inspired.

So what do we do with our grief? With our wonderful memories of classes and workshops with him? Meals shared–pizza and Chinese take out? With the memories of his humor, his gentle critiques of our tapestry work? Most of us who studied with him are not spring chickens ourselves at this point. What’s the best use of our own time left? There’s no one answer to any of these ponderings . But there are lots of possibilities for each of us to consider about our own creative output, whether in tapestry or some other art form, or in the way we interact with others. Everyone who encountered Archie certainly got a glimpse of how creatively Archie looked at the world. There was humor and a gentle social commentary in every piece that Archie chose to spend his time creating. He was endlessly fascinated with getting know the people who crossed his path, and he was generous, so generous with his knowledge. Those of us who weave are much indebted to what he taught us.

Someone once asked Archie what was the most difficult piece he had ever woven; he answered: the one on the loom right now. …and there it is, the very nature of everything we do. Each of our hurdles advances us some tiny bit forward for the next hurdle. Archie was part of our advancement, either in tapestry weaving or in looking at the world in a more creative and socially conscious way. The best we can do is take our hard-won knowledge and use it, over and over, and remember him often along our journey.

I am not a religious person, but it was poignant that Archie left this world during the hallowed evening, on the precipice of all saints. His patience and his humor always made me think he was a bit of a saint…. Farewell, dear teacher.

Archie, standing with his tapestry “The Mary Powell,” at the opening of the Wednesday Group’s exhibition of works inspired by the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river that bears his name. The Arts Society of Kingston, Kingston, NY. 2009.

Happy Birthday Archie! – Dec 7th

Archie - 2017

In such company….at the Scottish National Museum

Three pieces in Archie Brennan’s Mohammud Ali series are on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.  

 

 

 

The exhibition is titled “20th Century: Masterpieces of Scottish and European Art,”  currently on view and lasting through September 27.

Here is an excerpt from the description online:

This display of works from the collection of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art offers an historical overview of some of the most remarkable art made during the last century. It concentrates on areas in which the Gallery’s collection is particularly strong. Since it has always been central to the Gallery’s mission to place modern Scottish art in an international context, we have tried to show the best of Scottish art alongside modern European masters.

Archie has three works of ink and pencil on paper from his Mohammud Ali series in this exhibition, which are in the museum’s collection.  His work is hanging near the collection of  MC Escher  works and is in good company with works by Picasso, Edouard Vuillard, and Scottish artists William Turnbull and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh.

 

Are you tempted to drop everything and make a trip to Edinburgh?  Yeah, me too….

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
75 Belford Rd.
Edinburgh
Open daily from 10 am –  5 pm

 

 

Garner Arts Festival

Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei, along with members of the Wednesday Group, will have about 30 tapestries on view at the gallery exhibition at Garner Arts Festival during the newly re-established annual textile festival at Garner Arts Center in Garnerville, NY.  Also on display will be works by the Textile Study Group of New York and studio artists at the Arts Center.

This historic site was once a very profitable mill for dyeing and printing calico fabric along with other wool, cotton and linen fabrics.  At the height of its production it employed thousands of workers in 30 buildings on the site, and was traded on the NYSE.  It is now on the New York State Register of Historic Places under “Rockland Printworks.”

For more information about the history of the mill see the timeline  on their website.

Here are a few images from the exhibition.

The exhibit was only ‘up’ for a week, but it was a lovely show of works. I’ve chosen to focus on Archie’s works here since this is about him.

Last Few Weeks of “Contemporary International Tapestry”

Yesterday I stumbled on Elizabeth Buckley’s blog through a post on Facebook.  She has written a thoughtful piece about the current tapestry exhibit at the Hunterdon Museum of Art, where she describes how much work has gone into this gathering of tapestries from so many respected artists.  You can read it here.   This photo is from the opening reception when Archie and Elizabeth were discussing her piece “Dialogues through the Veil.”   Photo credit: Lisa Heilman Lomauro

Carol Russell curated this show, inviting 40 tapestry artists from 9 countries to participate.  She worked with Schiffer Books to create a beautiful catalogue for the show, published as a hardback book. While I’ve been away this winter my mail has been forwarded to my son’s house, and that book is waiting for me there.  It’s a five-hour drive to his house, but it will be at the top of my to-do list when I return home.  I can’t wait to see this book!

And, of course, the show itself.  I’ll be headed there in early May, right before it closes on May 10th.  If you haven’t seen it, there is still time!  If you cannot get there at least you can order this beautiful catalog.

 

 

Opening Reception for “Contemporary International Tapestry”

Over 300 people attended the opening reception of “Contemporary International Tapestry” at Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ.  This exhibition which is curated by Carol Russell, has works by 40 tapestry artists from numerous countries.  More events will take place during the span of this exhibition, including a presentation by Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei, called “A Day of Contemporary Tapestry” which will include a lecture and an interactive demonstration by Archie, on Sunday, March 22, from 9.30 am – 4.30 pm.

This exhibition will be on view until May 10.

January 11th at the Hunterdon Art Museum! Don’t Miss it!

Sunday, January 11, Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei will be at the opening reception of “Contemporary International Tapestry” at Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ.  This exhibition is curated by Carol Russell and has an impressive collection of works by prominent tapestry artists!

“Monsieur Bonnard’s Granddaughter,” Archie Brennan. 2001. 40″ x 30.5″

 

 Other artists that will be in this exhibition include: Jo Barker, Joan Baxter, Helga Berry, Rebecca Bluestone,  Elizabeth J. Buckley, Soyoo Hyunjoo Park Caltabiano, Włodzimierz Cygan,  Alla Davydova, Annelise De Coursin, Susan Edmunds, Alex Friedman, Ina Golub, Barbara Heller, Susan Hart Henegar, Silvia Heyden, Dirk Holger, Peter Horn, Constance Hunt, Susan Iverson, Ruth Jones, Aino Kajaniemi, Jane Kidd, Lialia Kuchma, Christine Laffer, Ewa Latkowska-Żychska, Bojana H. Leznicki, Lore Lindenfeld, Yael Lurie and Jean Pierre Larochette, Susan Martin Maffei, Julia Mitchell, Janet Moore, Jon Eric Riis, Ramona Sakiestewa, Micala Sidore, Elinor Steele, Sarah Swett and Linda Wallace.

To top off this spectacular collection of work will be a comprehensive hardbound catalog of this exhibition!