Anna Thommesen: weavings

Best known for her minimalist, geometric carpets, textile artist Anna Thommesen (1908–2004) helped shape the course of modernist design in Denmark and beyond. Although her carpets and tapestries, created for private residences and public institutions, are characterised by a rare artistic integrity, the global significance of her work has never been fully explored until now.

This first publication in English devoted to Anna Thommesen presents more than 100 works – carpets, tapestries and watercolours, patterns and yarn samples – analysed from different angles. In light of biographical documents and other archives, the book offers a careful look at the artist's creative practice, the connection between her work and nature, her worldview and her artistic position.

Particular attention is paid to Anna Thommesen's public commissions, notably her weavings for the Danish Parliament (1968–1972) and Roskilde Cathedral (1975–1977). The book also discusses her teaching at the Jutland Academy of Fine Arts from 1965 to 1972, where she ran a weaving school that became a unique environment for textile art in Denmark, and then takes a fresh look at the artist's position in art history.