On view May 29, 2026 – March 20, 2027
Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Free guided exhibition tours on the first Saturday at 2 p.m. of each month
Woven Wonders: Kykuit’s Picasso Tapestries showcases eight monumental tapestries based on Pablo Picasso’s bold paintings and handwoven with his approval by Jacqueline de la Baume Dürrbach (1920-1989) between 1955 and 1975. The exhibition explores the origins and painstaking artistry behind this unique commission for Nelson A. Rockefeller and an extraordinary collaboration between artists, curators, and collectors.
Jacqueline de la Baume Dürrbach was trained in low-warp tapestry weaving with a former Aubusson master weaver in Paris. She and her husband, René Dürrbach, ran one of the few French studios that combined the medieval tapestry tradition with the 20th-century Abstract Art movement by creating weavings after designs by modern artists. Over the course of this 20-year collaboration, de la Baume Dürrbach developed a friendly working relationship with Picasso, who trusted her to translate his brushstrokes into textile.
Every detail of the commission was carefully considered and thoughtfully executed. In consultation with Picasso, de la Baume Dürrbach wove the silk and wool tapestries entirely by hand. Each tapestry took about one year to complete, from the selection of a painting to the shipping of a finished tapestry from the weaver’s Atelier Cavalaire in southern France to Tarrytown. Although they were once dismissed as decorative copies, these “woven wonders” are now recognized as works of art in their own right.
Nelson Rockefeller enjoyed the portability of the resulting tapestries, displaying them in different residences before they found a permanent home at Pocantico, where 15 of the original 19 tapestries he commissioned or acquired now hang.
This will be the first time since the 2014 exhibition at the San Antonio Museum of Art that the tapestries are on view outside of Kykuit. A catalogue published by the San Antonio Museum of Art containing color plates of the tapestries and essays on the history of the commissions, the original paintings, and correspondence between Rockefeller, Picasso, and the weavers is available here.
