Movement Through Tapestry

Globally Informed Artistic Creations. 

Nancy Hemenway Whitten Barton was an American artist who specialized in tapestries created from a wide range of fabrics. She created an art form she called "bayetage" -- a combination of flower-dyed wool, bayeta, and collage. Hemenway had one-artist exhibitions at more than 20 museums around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Edinburgh City Art Centre, Scotland. Her work is in over a dozen permanent museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Portland Museum of Art.

Ahead of Her Time - The Life and Work of Nancy Hemenway Barton

2017

This major retrospective of one of the 20th century’s most creative and multifaceted artists featured early watercolors, oils and portraits plus textile designs and wall hangings from Hemenway’s global museum exhibitions.  All three floors of the Gallery showcased journals, poetry, videos and memorabilia. Other museums, including the Farnsworth, Bates, and Wheaton, featured works during this same period as part of a Hemenway Trail that celebrated her breakthrough career. In a review of this trailblazing exhibition, Daniel Kany described Hemenway’s work as “monumental, gorgeous and brilliant.” Kany noted that although Hemenway “has little of the recognition Chihuly or Voulkos have enjoyed… her work sparkles no less than theirs…”.

To inquire about Hemenway’s work or to request a copy of “Ahead of Her Time”—a 2017 Retrospective Catalogue,

please email krlfdb@aol.com