Jack Lenor Larsen, Founder Of LongHouse Reserve, Dies At 93

Jack Lenor Larsen, the renowned textile designer, artist and gardener, died on Tuesday evening, December 22, at LongHouse Reserve, the 16-acre sculpture garden in East Hampton he founded that also served as his residence. He was 93 years old.

Mr. Larsen’s companion of more than three decades, Peter Olsen, was at his side, according to a statement from LongHouse Reserve.

Late in life, Mr. Larsen came to refer to himself as “the last of the mid-century modernists,” a well-earned title.

Born on August 5, 1927, in Seattle, Washington, Mr. Larsen was the only child of parents from Alberta, Canada. Following in the footsteps of his father, an architect, Mr. Larsen enrolled at the School of Architecture at the University of Washington in 1945, according to a biography provided by LongHouse Reserve. The following year, he studied furniture design and began weaving, then moved to Los Angeles to focus on fabric design. In 1949, he studied ancient Peruvian textiles in Seattle and in 1951 he earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

In the early 1950s, Mr. Larsen began his career in textile design in New York City, establishing his studio, Jack Lenor Larsen Inc., and he continued to release textile collections through last year. He was known for adopting Asian, African and Indigenous patterns and techniques, and helping to preserve them, according to LongHouse, in addition to his own aesthetic innovations. His fabrics are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Victoria & Albert Museum and more cultural institutions. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy chose a Larsen fabric to redecorate the White House during the John F. Kennedy administration, and during the Richard Nixon administration, Mr. Larsen provided the carpets and upholstery for Air Force One.

Over his lifetime, Mr. Larsen received accolades from the American Craft Council, the American Institute of Architects, the Aspen Design Conference, The New School, Interior Design’s Hall of Fame and The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and honorary doctorates from Parsons School of Design, The Fashion Institute, The Rhode Island School of Design, and both the Royal College of Art and the Royal Society of Art in London, England.

LongHouse Reserve also noted that Mr. Larsen was one of just four Americans to exhibit at the Louvre in Paris.

It was in 1991 that Mr. Larsen set about creating LongHouse Reserve, pairing ornamental plants with permanent and rotating sculpture exhibitions. LongHouse itself was designed in collaboration with architect Charles Forberg and built by Joe Tufariello, completed in 1992. The 13,000-square-foot residence has 18 spaces across four levels and showcases Mr. Larsen’s collections of historical and contemporary crafts.

Among the permanent fixtures of the LongHouse reserve gardens are works by Willem de Kooning, Bryan Hunt, Sol LeWitt, Grace Knowlton, Yoko Ono and Toshiko Takaezu. The largest work, where guests naturally gravitate to for taking photographs, is Buckminster Fuller’s “Fly’s Eye Dome,” which can be walked under.

Glass blower Dale Chihuly, who has exhibited many works at LongHouse, said in a statement upon Mr. Larsen death, “Jack Lenor Larsen was an extraordinary designer, teacher, and friend. Already a legend when we met at the University of Washington while I was still a student, he encouraged me and became a mentor. Jack was remarkably creative and continues to help artists and craftsmen — opening doors for them and helping them find their way.”

Mr. Larsen shared his designs, wisdom and observations in 10 books. The most recent, “Learning from LongHouse,” was released in 2016. In 2017, Mr. Larsen and LongHouse Reserve were the subjects of a short documentary, “LarsenWorld.”

“In a world today in which our senses are saturated with sameness, Jack Larsen is a shrine to individuality,” LongHouse Reserve Board President Dianne Benson said in a statement Wednesday. “In our mega-multiple world where things are now routinely measured in billions, Jack cautioned us to be more mindful of what we take away than of what we add. ‘Subtraction is the key to elegance’ he insisted. Both fluid and authoritative, intimidating and shy, possessed of a dry wit and an elegant mien, Jack was also totally unpredictable. Often, he made an appearance dressed in the most hand-woven of ethnic costumes, including astonishing hats and uncommonly beautiful scarves and at other times he showed up in the outdoorsiest of garden woolens and boots, with everyone else primped for summer. Invariably, he had always made the best choice.”

Matko Tomicic, the executive director of Longhouse Reserve, said: “During the course of over 24 years of working with Jack, I learned the importance of dreaming, planning, and being open to all possibilities. Each day proved to be an adventure, a challenge, an experiment, an exploration, and an opportunity to envision and to realize the warp and weft of life. We would, indeed be fortunate to create until our final breath, as he did. Jack was my mentor, Jack was my friend, he will be missed.”

A memorial service will be announced soon, according to LongHouse Reserve. To honor Mr. Larsen’s life, donations may be made to the Jack Lenor Larsen Endowment Fund, which was established to support the maintenance of LongHouse Reserve and the programming held there.

The ownership of Mr. Larsen’s house, inspired by Japan’s Ise Grand Shrine, and his personal collection is being transferred to the LongHouse Reserve Foundation, which intends to transform his home into a “house museum.”