Helena Hernmarck

Helena Hernmarck (born in Stockholm, Sweden, 1941) is a Swedish tapestry artist who lives and works in the United States. She is best known for her monumental tapestries designed for architectural settings.

Early life and education Hernmark's parents were Carl Hernmarck, curator of decorative arts at the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts, and Kerstin Simon, a journalist. Hernmarck studied weaving in Stockholm, first at the Friends of Handicraft, and later at Sweden’s University College of Arts, Crafts and Design. Her primary teacher was Swedish textile artist Edna Martin. She apprenticed with textile designer Alice Lund.

Career Hernmarck lived in Canada from 1964–1972, followed by England 1972–1975, eventually moving to New York in 1975. Hernmarck married industrial designer Niels Diffrient in 1976. In 1973, she received the American Institute of Architects Craftsmanship Medal. George Nelson, Ulrich Franzen, Hugh Stubbins, John Carl Warnecke, Kevin Roche, and others. One of her earliest commissions was for the executive offices of the Weyerhaeuser Company in Seattle, Washington (1970–71) In 1999, Hernmarck had a major retrospective exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, "Monumental and Intimate," which traveled to Waldemarsudde in Stockholm, Sweden later that year. In 2018 the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum held an exhibit entitled Weaving in Progress. The exhibition included a weaving studio where Hernmarck would weave. Her work is held in private, corporate, and museum collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Work Hernmarck was among the first tapestry artists to use photographs as the basis for her designs, which rely on optical illusions to create photorealistic effects. Her work in the 1960s reflected the influence of pop culture with tapestries such as Newspapers (1968) woven from a composition of newspaper clippings and Little Richard (1969) simulating a 7 by 8 foot album cover. In the 1970s, Hernmarck began working from enlarged color photographs, rendering the effects of light on water in tapestries such as Sailing (1976), which was produced for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Hernmarck has also used paper collages, watercolors, and photographic details as the basis for her designs. Before each major commission, Hernmarck works with Wålstedts mill in Dala-Floda, Sweden to spin and dye yarn. Some of Hernmarck's tapestries are woven, with assistants, at her studio in Connecticut.

Selected solo exhibitions Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 1973 Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City 1999 American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, MN 2012 Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Governor’s Arts Award, 1998 Sweden’s Prins Eugen Medal, 1999 Swedish American of the Year, 2000 Sophie Adlersparres Medalj, 2002

Selected bibliography

Constantine, M., & Larsen, J. L. (1973). Beyond craft: the art fabric. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. Hernmarck, H., Boman, M., Malarcher, P., Brummer, H. H., & Dunlap, R. (1999). Helena Hernmarck: Tapestry artist. Stockholm: Byggförlaget. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Koplos, Janet, & Metcalf, Bruce (2010). Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. McFadden, D. R., Cooper-Hewitt Museum., Minnesota Museum of Art., & Renwick Gallery. (1982). Scandinavian Modern Design, 1880–1980. New York: Abrams.