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 has had one-artist exhibitions at more than 20 museums around the world, including the Denver Art Museum, 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 close to twenty permanent museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Portland Museum of Art.
UPCOMING MUSEUM ACQUISITIONS
Thaw
Soon to be part of major museum collection (2026)
Completed: 1994 (6' H x 45'6”)
As a free-flowing translucent sculpture, “Thaw” calls you to come closer, drift forward, and become lost in the wonder of winter. As an artist develops their craft, competence and ambition compete against one another, compelling the other to grow stronger. Hemenway’s colossal 1994 installation “Thaw” embraces this energetic tug-of-war between capacity, growth, and ambition—all in pursuit of immersing the viewer in a woven winter world.
Untitled, Aqua Lapis Series
Soon to be part of major museum collection (2026)
(10’ 1/2" H x 5'4" W)
RECENT MUSEUM ACQUISITIONS
“‘Aqua Lapis’ is not just a title. It is a whole new way of thinking about source material… I have molded the wool like clay into an undulating pattern... This is a complicated and tedious process because the sense of flow must not be lost… Finished, the lining makes the outer layer seem more luxuriant, the gentle roll as it hangs on the wall is a miraculous suspension, a defiance of gravity without tension.”
Aqua Lapis I
Part of Art Museum of the Americas Permanent Collection (2025)
Completed: 1978
White wool and organdy, beige and gray embroidery.
Moment of Impact
Part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Permanent Collection (2025)
Completed: 1980 (5'3" x 4'5")
White alpaca embroidery on white mohair and brown alpaca.
Lume I
Part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Permanent Collection (2025)
Completed: 1984
Orange/Gray/Brown/Black alpaca wool+karakal.
Pectoral II
Part of Art Museum of the Americas Permanent Collection (2025)
Completed: 1974 (6'8" x 48' W)
Brown bayeta with white bayeta and natural shades of brown and grey alpaca with orange wool yarn needlecraft
Tipi Waterfall
Tipi Waterfall is part of the Wheaton College Permanent Collection
Tipi Waterfall Completed: 1986 (recreated in 1992)
In her final evolution of fiber artistry, Hemenway expanded her repertoire of fiber art by pulling tapestry off the wall and inviting the viewer to experience fiber art in three-dimensional space. Crafted for an international exhibition in Beijing, Hemenway’s Tipis sought to honor and elevate one of the most iconic American structures—the American Indian Tipi.
Pectoral I
Part of Berea College Permanent Collection
Completed: 1973
Brown bayeta with white bayeta and natural shades of brown and grey alpaca with orange wool yearn needlecraft. Organdy insets. Currently owned by Hemenway Foundation. (60”W x 72” H)
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…”.
University of New England Gallery Portland
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