Jack Lenor Larsen: The Dream Weaver, Photo Gallery

Textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen brings an eclectic sensibility to his lush public garden in the Hamptons. To the left, Jack Larsen sits on a sculpture made by John Houshmand; behind him is “Bridge Summer” by the artist Claus Bury. 

To read more about this garden, read the full article Jack Lenor Larsen: The Dream Weaver.

A hornbeam allée perfectly frames “Fuyu,” a granite sculpture made by Izumi Masatoshi.

Wisteria creates an unexpected hedge that flanks a moon-gazing bridge, the main entryway to Larsen’s house.

Buckminster Fuller’s 33-foot-diameter fiberglass “Fly’s Eye Dome.”

European hornbeams form a curtain behind Gaston Lachaise’s bronze “Standing Woman,” who appears to be looking into the vortex waterfall produced by Ray Smith and Associates.

Ron Rudnicki’s installation “Angles of Repose” uses hardscaping as mixed media. Behind it, the rose garden and the Reserve’s office, which has'White Dawn' climbing rose on its wall.

An untitled work of round forms made by artist Grace Knowlton seems to have landed on one of the LongHouse lawns.

THE LARSEN EFFECT

Long before bumper stickers advised us to think globally and act locally, Jack Larsen was traveling the world, finding inspiration in distant crafts and cultures and then weaving them, literally, into his work and his gardens at home: 

From Larsen’s Andean Collection, a Baroque-motif cotton velvet fabric called “Conquistador" (pictured). 

Detail of Dale Chihuly’s blown-glass “White Beluga” installation at the entrance to the garden’s Dunes section, underneath weeping Norway spruces and embedded in Microbiata decussata.

One of Larsen’s first fabrics —still a good seller more than 50 years later — is “Bouquet Garni,” which was drawn by his friend Don Wight.

In a section of the Dunes sprinkled with beach plum and Calluna vulgaris, Dale Chihuly’s blown-glass “Cobalt Reeds” stand at attention.

A detail of the installation “Angles of Repose” by Ron Rudnicki, surrounded by variegated liriope and Juniperus procumbens.

The Reserve’s 2004 BENCHmark exhibition included this concrete work called “3 Egg Bench” from artist Jerry Kott. True to the spirit of LongHouse, seemingly simple objects are enhanced through context — here, the concrete art plays against the subtle textural shifts of the bluestone terrace, stucco wall, and leaves of Breynia disticha ‘Roseo-picta’.

Larsen’s silk and linen “Onward!” fabric, handcrafted in Thailand, challenges the conventional notion of weaving as a purely horizontal and vertical enterprise.