Jack Lenor Larsen

    Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020), internationally known textile designer, author, and collector was one of the world's foremost advocates of traditional and contemporary crafts. His awards are many and his designs are in collections of international museums. Larsen is associated with schools and art centers worldwide.

    Jack Lenor Larsen


    Photo courtesy of Shonna Valeska, @shonnavaleska

    Jack Lenor Larsen founded the firm that bears his name in 1952. Over the past seven decades, Larsen - the company - has grown steadily to become a dominant resource for signature fabrics. The "Larsen Look" which began with Mr. Larsen's own award-winning hand-woven fabrics of natural yarns in random repeats has evolved to become synonymous with 20th century design at its pinnacle.

    Known as an innovator, Larsen has won many awards and is one of only four Americans ever to be honored with an exhibition in the Palais du Louvre. More than a weaver, Mr. Larsen was a scholar, world traveler, and an authority on traditional and contemporary crafts. His home, LongHouse, located on 16 acres in East Hampton, NY, was built as a case study to exemplify a creative approach to contemporary life. He believes visitors experiencing art in living spaces have a unique learning experience--more meaningful than the best media. Inspired by the famous Japanese shrine at Ise, LongHouse contains 13,000 square feet, and 18 spaces on four levels. The gardens present the designed landscape as an art form and offer a diversity of sites for the sculpture installations.

    A Note from our Founder and Artistic Director

    For a long time now, I have been a maker - often of the less usual and with some success - for a time. While mid-century furniture endures, my cloths are in shreds, their successful exhibits long forgotten.

    LongHouse - on the other hand - transcends, each year more splendidly. Best are the trees - both the giant oaks each year so  knowingly pruned as to become bare-leaved - our finest sculpture and my favorite place of prayer.  Next best, are the many trees planted long ago  and now surprisingly, beautifully mature.

    Friends used to ask about a Master Plan to which my response was, "I don't know yet what will be given us," recalling the ancient proverb: Be an open bowl that some opportunity might fall in!  Now we see the coming together of the gardens, both the organic and the structured (manmade).  And approximately subordinate, as is the evolving sculpture, an understatement so rare these days.

    PS:  In the same breath, I express gratitude for our memorial trees - both those given us and those dedicated - which each year becomes more noble.

    - Jack Lenor Larsen, 2019

    Learn More About Jack

    Mr. Larsen's most recent book, Learning from LongHouse was published by Pointed Leaf Press in 2016.

    Jack Lenor Larsen's LongHouse by Molly Chappellet  was published in 2010 by Chronicle Books.

    Both books can be purchased at INstore.