TAPESTRIES at Jane Kahan Gallery

Tapestries are simultaneously among the most ancient and the most modern of art forms.

The word “tapestry” once referred exclusively to the rich fabrics that adorned castles and palaces in the Middle Ages. Now, as more and more museums are developing collections of fabric art, the term is just as likely to connote modern master weavings by Chagall or Leger that adorn board rooms and penthouses, vacation homes and condominiums.

In Aubusson, France, where tapestries have been made since the Middle Ages, ateliers working in the tradition of Raphael and Rubens, developed modern tapestries with the great artists of the 20th century. It takes a skilled weaver working with special wools and dyes a month or more to create a square yard of this fabric. Tapestries were sometimes signed by the artists, many are of large scale and all are limited editions.

Picasso, Leger, Miro and Raoul Dufy were among the first modern artists to allow their designs to be translated into tapestries. In the early 1930s their tapestries and others were exhibited side by side with the paintings that had inspired them – the tapestries selling for higher prices than the originals. By the end of the century Chagall tapestries were redefining the form.

PICASSO TAPESTRIES, CHAGALL TAPESTRIES

Chagall Tapestry Details

Yvette Cauquil-Prince, one of the great weavers of the 20^th Century, collaborated with numerous top artists on tapestries that have been exhibited in museums including the Louvre. Her personal artistic vision was closest to Chagall with whom she created dozens of spectacular unique works. Cauquil-Prince also worked with Picasso, whose earlier tapestries commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller still hang in the Rockefeller family estate, Kykuit.

The Jane Kahan Gallery is privileged to be the largest dealer of quality modern master tapestries in North America. We have exhibited at major art fairs and our entire collection was featured at the Kunsthauswien Museum in Vienna in the Spring of 2000. The catalogue for this exhibition, which includes numerous color photographs and valuable commentary, is available below, along with our newly published tapestry brochure.

Please contact us for details of tapestries by the following artists:

TAPESTRY PUBLICATIONS

Supplies are limited. Order now from our secure shopping cart. Sales tax may apply. Domestic shipping charges are $25 per order. We ship by Fedex. If this won’t work for you or if you are outside the US, please email or call. Click on Thumbnails to view sample pages.