MARY MERRILL

The Foundation for Fiber Art is the repository of a substantial collection of tapestries by Mary K. Merrill. Merrill’s tapestries as well as one by her teacher, Sharon Marcus, have been shown in museums around the country.

July 9 – 28, EXHIBIT, Mary Merrill Tapestries
On display at A.P.E. gallery in Thornes Market, downtown Northampton.
A.P.E. gallery hours are Monday - Saturday 10-5 p.m. & Sunday 12-5 p.m. www.apearts.org

July 13, 5-8 p.m., Reception for Mary Merrill Tapestries
Exhibit at A.P.E. gallery in conjunction with Arts Night Out! in downtown Northampton.

The collection has previously been exhibited at;

Hancock Depot, NH
1999

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, CA
January 26 – March 27, 2004
www.sjquiltmuseum.org

Fuller Craft Museum
Brockton, Massachusetts, July 17 – September 26, 2004
www.fullercraft.org

Senator Stan Rosenberg's offices at the Massachusetts State House
January 11 - February 28, 2006.

Mary Merrill

Dos Chicas 1992

Born 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, Mary Klohr Merrill credits a tapestry exhibit in 1949 at the Art Institute as a primary inspiration for her decision to become a weaver.  While living in Saint Louis with her family in the early 1950's, she bought a loom and studied weaving with Margaret Drewes.  Mary was also an avid knitter.   Upon moving to Boston a few years later, she continued to knit and weave, studying tapestry weaving with Barbara Herbster, Michele Mesnage, and Sharon Marcus.  She was also active in the Boston Weavers Guild, weaving yardage for Plimoth Plantation and assisting in the creation of the Young Collection of Pre-Columbian Peruvian Textiles, now at the Haffenreffer Museum.  At first, Mary's tapestries were based on paintings by favorite artists (Jackson, Matisse, Amiet); eventually, she began making ever larger pieces which reflected her passion for color and travel: Latin American vistas, fjords in Norway, glaciers in Chile.  Mary also exhibited her work throughout New England.   Mary considered herself a Fauve: "Gauguin's intoxication with color is reflected throughout my work."  She died November 2, 1999, leaving five children and her husband, Charles Merrill, Jr.

Future Fruits l, 1996 by Mary Merrill

“Tapestries of Mary Merrill is an impressionist view of other times and places. Inspired by the color saturates palettes of Gauguin, Kandinsky and the Fauves and travel in Tahiti, Mexico and Latin America, Merrill's tapestries capture colorful scenes of distant beauty. She combines her interests in pre-Columbian archaeology and textiles in bold wool tapestries featuring striking landscapes and scenes that she saw while traveling. Central and South American mountains and villages are woven in dramatic compositions of brilliant yellows, golds, greens and reds. A long-time active member of the Tapestry Weavers in New England and the Weavers Guild of Boston, Merrill saw weaving as a connection with people and cultures from the past as well as a means of personal expression. This exhibition was organized by the Fiber Art Center, Amherst, MA.” -The Fuller Museum

Primary North by Mary Merrill	Passages by Sharon Marcus