Those concerned that efforts to make LongHouse Reserve accessible to wider and larger audiences might ignore its founder should be consoled by the summer-long exhibition, "Jack, Larger Than Life," beginning Saturday.
It focuses on the life work of Jack Lenor Larsen, who died at age 93 in 2020, along with his avocations and what LongHouse terms "enthusiasms." Highlighting his modern take on textiles, the exhibition will also showcase pieces from his vast collection of material culture and the clothing he collected and wore.
More than 100 objects are illuminated by video interviews with the designer about his approach to life and art.
When Larsen was alive, Matko Tomicic, the executive director of LongHouse, told The Star, "Jack has 16 new ideas every morning. Unless I tell him, 'Jack, this is not doable,' he wants to try them all." When asked about this, Larsen agreed. From the time he was a schoolboy thinking up projects for the weekend, he lay awake at night plotting what to do next.
Some 50 examples of his textile designs will be on view. These include Leverlin, the material he designed for Lever House, the groundbreaking International Style New York City skyscraper; Swazi drapery for the Wolf Trap Theater in Virginia, and Magnum, enhanced with Mylar to reflect light, for the Phoenix Opera House.
The curators, Wendy van Deusen and Sherri Donghia, and the exhibition designers, Lee Skolnick and members of his firm, organized the textiles according to "color stories" that Larsen used in presenting and designing his own material. They apply the same principles to the display of his clothing, furniture, and art objects.
"Atop an angular Wharton Esherick table sits a Dale Chihuly silvered glass cylinder," according to the organizers. "A graphic Japanese kimono rubs elbows with a Marc Leuthold-carved ceramic and Stephen Proctor mid-century table; metalwork vessels by Chunghi Choo mingle with a Japanese indigo patched boro and West African resist-dyed textiles; Dawn MacNutt's fiber sculpture keeps watch over a Sheila Hicks miniature and Toradja armor made of horn. . . . As backdrop to these groupings, an entire wall is covered in a sensuous array of Larsen's printed cotton velvets."
While visually captivating, these objects also mark important milestones in Larsen's collection. Over his lifetime, the designer developed an extensive Esherick collection, and the table was his first acquisition. The Chihuly cylinder was the final gift the artist, known for colorful glass pieces inspired by nature, gave Larsen, who was a friend and mentor. Edward Albee, a good friend and fellow East Ender who turned his Montauk property into a residence for creative types, gave him the Toradja armor.
Larsen first visited East Hampton as a regular weekend guest of Bertha Schaefer in Amagansett back in 1952. Here he socialized with a group of artists he knew from New York City, such as Alfonso Ossorio, Jackson Pollock, and Willem and Elaine de Kooning. In the late 1950s, he found a chauffeur's apartment on Lily Pond Lane to rent. A few years later, he built Round House on Hand's Creek Road, basing it on western African shelters.
In 1991, Mr. Larsen moved into LongHouse Reserve on property abutting Round House. It was the same day he opened it to the public as an expression of his ideas of garden design and a retreat to contemplate nature and art.
The show will remain on view in the LongHouse Pavilion through Sept. 5. Visitors must have timed tickets for entry and can purchase them on the LongHouse website.
