Jan Yoors

Jan Yoors (12 April 1922 – 27 November 1977) was a Flemish-American artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker, and tapestry creator.[1] Growing up in Antwerp to liberal, pacifist parents, his father Eugeen Yoors, a famed stained-glass artist, Yoors studied painting before deciding to live with a Rom kumpania he encountered on the outskirts of Antwerp at the age of twelve, and about which he would later write two memoirs, The Gypsies[2] (1967) and Crossing: A Journal of Survival and Resistance in World War II[3] (1971), the latter about living with the Rom during World War II. Yoors fled to London after the war where he lived with his wife Annebert and her best friend Marianne. It is at this point that Yoors began to design tapestries and set up a tapestry studio with his wife Annebert and Marianne. In 1950 he moved to New York, traveling there under the guise of a journalist. The following year, Annebert and Marianne joined and the three set up the Jan Yoors Studio. In New York, Yoors befriended numerous figures in the art and design worlds. He received commissions from corporations such as Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan, and private collectors. His work was seen in numerous exhibitions across the United States and internationally. In New York in the 50s, Yoors also continued his passion for photography, which he began while living with the Rom, documenting the streets of New York. He traveled extensively on a trip to revisit his Rom family in Europe, and, in 1966-67 photographed post-war religious buildings for Edward Sovik as part of the First International Congress on Religion, Architecture, and the Visual Arts in New York. Yoors's oeuvre is currently represented by several galleries in New York, Europe including reGeneration Furniture, Todd Merrill, L Parker Stephenson Photographs, and Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp, and regularly shown at design and photography fairs.

Yoors working on Cartoon for Tapestry in JP Morgan collection

Early life and childhood

WWII

London years

1945–1946

From: 1947-1948 Annebert's childhood friend Marianne Citroen joins them in London, also learning to weave. "Nadara" (1948), the first of the large tapestries, is completed. The Archer Gallery in London organizes the first exhibition of Yoors's work in tapestry. In 1949 the "Eighth Annual Exhibition of Catholic Art" at the Royal Institute of British Architects includes Yoors's work.

New York

In 1950, Yoors travels to New York for what was meant to be a six-week stay as a journalist and sets up a studio with a 15-foot vertical loom. Galerie Stop-War in Brussels. Both tapestries and gouaches depicting biblical scenes are included.

"Tapestry Today: America's Approach to an Ancient Art", at America House is presented by the American Craftsmen's Educational Council.

Art in America magazine lists Yoors as a new talent. Virginia Frankl Gallery, NY organizes an exhibition of tapestries.

The exhibition includes work by René Magritte, Gaston Bertrand, and Paul Delvaux.

A tapestry is commissioned for Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Minnesota.

together with Japanese-American abstract expressionist painter Kenzo Okada's recent work.

The Yoors family moves to 108 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village.

1969: "Contemporary European Tapestries" from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Hurschler is organized at the Society of the Four Arts in Florida.

Yoors returned to Belgium a final time for a retrospective in Ghent at Saint Peter's Abbey.

Exhibitions since Jan's death

1700 Broadway, NY mounts a memorial exhibition.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires the tapestry "Inevitable Interaction (1977)."

The Bryan Center at Duke University mounts a solo exhibition.

2011-2012

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Servellon, Sergio; Falino, Jeannine; Janssen, Elsje (2012). Jan Yoors. Belgium: FeliXart Museum Drogenbos: Pandora Publishers.
  2. ↑ Yoors, Jan (1967). The Gypsies. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  3. ↑ Yoors, Jan (1971). Crossing: A Journal of Survival and Resistance in World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  4. ↑ Falino, Jeannine (2011). Crafting Modernism. New York: Abrams in association with Museum of Arts and Design.

External links

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