Floating

Marcel Breuer, the designer of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, as well as the nearby headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was one of the foremost architects of the twentieth century.  Breuer was born in Hungary in 1902.  He studied design in the 1920s at the famous Bauhaus in Germany, relocated to London in 1935, and then to Harvard University in 1937, where he taught alongside his good friend and Bauhaus colleague Walter Gropius.  Breuer founded his own architecture practice in New York in 1941.  In 1968, in recognition of his many innovative building projects, he received two prestigious awards: the American Institute of Architect’s Gold Medal and the first Jefferson Foundation Medal.  Although Breuer is known primarily for his revolutionary architectural work and furniture designs, he also enjoyed the opportunity to explore other art forms, such as tapestry.

Breuer’s tapestry works fell into two general categories: those that are highly architectural and regulated by geometric shapes, versus others that are more free-form.  Breuer used the full spectrum of colors in his tapestry designs, often juxtaposing them to produce daring combinations.  Floating is made of dyed, woven silk threads that have been tufted and sheared.  The tapestry’s abstract forms are carefully structured: Breuer arranged squares in varying sizes and colors in an overall square field, resulting in a well-balanced composition.