Jack Lenor Larsen, a textile designer who blended ancient techniques and modern technology to weave fabrics that enlivened postwar American homes and workplaces and in the process became an international presence, died on Tuesday at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 93.
Jack Lenor Larsen was born on Aug. 5, 1927, to Elmer Larsen, a building contractor, and Mabel (Bye) Larsen. His parents were Canadians of Danish-Norwegian ancestry who immigrated to Washington State from Alberta and moved to Bremerton when Mr. Larsen began high school.
He enrolled at the University of Washington to study architecture but was hampered by struggles with drawing and found more interest in interior and furniture design. Weaving, a craft then taught in the home economics department, soothed his maker’s itch.
His textiles are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, which gave him a one-man retrospective in 1981.
Among the homes containing Larsen textiles are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, he was a close friend of Edgar Kaufmann jr. and loved Fallingwater. His fabrics can be found thoughout the house, particularly on all the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furniture, including the banquettes, hassocks and zabutons. Also Eero Saarinen’s Miller House. In the 1960s, Mr. Larsen took a brief detour into designing garments, including shaggy ties worn by Alexander Calder, Leonard Bernstein and I.M. Pei.
He is survived by Peter Olsen, his domestic partner.
Jack Lenor Larsen was born on Aug. 5, 1927, to Elmer Larsen, a building contractor, and Mabel (Bye) Larsen. His parents were Canadians of Danish-Norwegian ancestry who immigrated to Washington State from Alberta and moved to Bremerton when Mr. Larsen began high school.
He enrolled at the University of Washington to study architecture but was hampered by struggles with drawing and found more interest in interior and furniture design. Weaving, a craft then taught in the home economics department, soothed his maker’s itch.
His textiles are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, which gave him a one-man retrospective in 1981.
Among the homes containing Larsen textiles are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, he was a close friend of Edgar Kaufmann jr. and loved Fallingwater. His fabrics can be found thoughout the house, particularly on all the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furniture, including the banquettes, hassocks and zabutons. Also Eero Saarinen’s Miller House. In the 1960s, Mr. Larsen took a brief detour into designing garments, including shaggy ties worn by Alexander Calder, Leonard Bernstein and I.M. Pei.
He is survived by Peter Olsen, his domestic partner.
Jack Lenor Larsen, a textile designer who blended ancient techniques and modern technology to weave fabrics that enlivened postwar American homes and workplaces and in the process became an international presence, died on Tuesday at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 93.
Jack Lenor Larsen was born on Aug. 5, 1927, to Elmer Larsen, a building contractor, and Mabel (Bye) Larsen. His parents were Canadians of Danish-Norwegian ancestry who immigrated to Washington State from Alberta and moved to Bremerton when Mr. Larsen began high school.
He enrolled at the University of Washington to study architecture but was hampered by struggles with drawing and found more interest in interior and furniture design. Weaving, a craft then taught in the home economics department, soothed his maker’s itch.
His textiles are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, which gave him a one-man retrospective in 1981.
Among the homes containing Larsen textiles are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, he was a close friend of Edgar Kaufmann jr. and loved Fallingwater. His fabrics can be found thoughout the house, particularly on all the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furniture, including the banquettes, hassocks and zabutons. Also Eero Saarinen’s Miller House. In the 1960s, Mr. Larsen took a brief detour into designing garments, including shaggy ties worn by Alexander Calder, Leonard Bernstein and I.M. Pei.
He is survived by Peter Olsen, his domestic partner.
Jack Lenor Larsen was born on Aug. 5, 1927, to Elmer Larsen, a building contractor, and Mabel (Bye) Larsen. His parents were Canadians of Danish-Norwegian ancestry who immigrated to Washington State from Alberta and moved to Bremerton when Mr. Larsen began high school.
He enrolled at the University of Washington to study architecture but was hampered by struggles with drawing and found more interest in interior and furniture design. Weaving, a craft then taught in the home economics department, soothed his maker’s itch.
His textiles are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, which gave him a one-man retrospective in 1981.
Among the homes containing Larsen textiles are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, he was a close friend of Edgar Kaufmann jr. and loved Fallingwater. His fabrics can be found thoughout the house, particularly on all the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furniture, including the banquettes, hassocks and zabutons. Also Eero Saarinen’s Miller House. In the 1960s, Mr. Larsen took a brief detour into designing garments, including shaggy ties worn by Alexander Calder, Leonard Bernstein and I.M. Pei.
He is survived by Peter Olsen, his domestic partner.
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