EILEEN MAYO'S UNSEEN TAPESTRY

A rare and previously unseen tapestry found by chance has been transformed into a new large-scale textile work.

To coincide with the first ever UK solo exhibition of multi-skilled painter, printmaker, illustrator, and tapestry designer, Eileen Mayo DBE (1906-1994) a tapestry cartoon by the artist which was found by chance by her great niece will be the centrepiece of an exhibition at Towner Eastbourne.

Image: Eileen Mayo, 1930 ©E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection, Curatorial Inc.

Despite her exceptional skills, Mayo remains largely unknown in the United Kingdom. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire just before she died in 1994, but her work is far more widely celebrated, exhibited and collected in New Zealand, where she had relocated in 1962 (following ten years in Australia), and where she spent the remainder of her life.

Mayo’s long career was characterised by her crossover between fine and applied arts and associations and also time as an artist’s model. Having attended the Slade and then the Central School of Art, Mayo’s early career saw her working as a model to some of the best-known artists of the time, including Laura Knight and Dod Procter. Learning from these artists she pushed her own work, showing her first prints at the Royal Academy in 1930.

Image: Humpback and Bottlenose, 1980, screenprint. Private collection. Photograph by John Hammond. © The Estate of Dame Eileen Mayo.

Mayo had shown an early love of nature and understanding of natural history and this was demonstrated through her work for the rest of her career. Her rare ability to combine this knowledge and understanding of nature with a skill at representing it across a wide range of media - including illustration, books, prints, paintings, tapestries, murals, posters, stamps and coins, as well as through her own writing, will be showcased to the public in the upcoming exhibition.

Image: Installation view, Eileen Mayo: A Natural History, 12 February to 3 July 2022. Photo by Rob Harris.

The drawing, Duck Pond (c.1949),  was found via an internet search by Mayo’s great niece, Dr Lucie Stanford, who then sought to purchase it at auction.  The work has now been realised in collaboration with The Tapestry Studio at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, one of the only professional studios in the UK and is the only tapestry by Mayo to be created posthumously. Lucie was keen to commission the tapestry from the cartoon she had purchased having been in touch with John Gainsborough, Mayo’s step-son, about the exhibition at Towner. She was inspired to work with West Dean through their reputation and collaborations with artists such as Tracey Emin, John Piper and the Henry Moore Foundation.

“I bought the cartoon via a phone bid at an auction in 2011. I was in Australia, the auction house was based in New Zealand, yet the cartoon was located in the USA. There was a second Eileen Mayo cartoon in the same auction which was of a rock pool scene and Duck Pond was “the one”. The cartoons were a surprise find, as they weren’t listed in the PhD Thesis on Eileen by Jillian Cassidy which catalogued all of her known works. The thesis does however catalogue a black and white ink version of Duck Pond which is held by Te Manawa Gallery in Palmerston North in New Zealand. This was very helpful as it has annotations by Eileen specifying the intended size of the woven tapestry which is significantly larger than the cartoon. West Dean has made it to the size specified by Eileen.”

Now fully realised, Duck Pond spans almost the size of a double bed quilt. The work, of blue and green hues and depicts an aerial view of a pond on which three ducks are swimming, surrounded by the aquatic flora, fauna and wildlife.

“Finalising the colours for the wool was an interesting process. West Dean has a very high resolution image of the cartoon, but colours can be “lost in translation” on a screen, so the initial batch of hand dyed yarns they sent were not an exact match. Philip then sent me dozens of Pantone colour chips which I matched to the original cartoon and they dyed the wool from this reference point. This was a really helpful process and the next batch of yarns were a good match. Looking back, it was really the exhibition at Towner Eastbourne that led to the commission, so thank you!” - Dr Lucie Stanford

Image: Installation view, Eileen Mayo: A Natural History, 12 February to 3 July 2022. Photo by Rob Harris.

The exhibition at Towner Eastbourne will showcase this brand new artwork, woven at West Dean by Emma Straw and Margaret Jones and under the direction of Tapestry Studio Leader Philip Sanderson, alongside a spectrum of Eileen’s drawings, paintings and illustrations made during her lifetime. 

Viewing the work at Towner will be the only chance to see the piece in the UK before the work travels to be part of a private collection in Australia following the exhibition. 

Image: Duck Pond, c.1948/49, cartoon for tapestry. © The Estate of Dame Eileen Mayo.  

--

Eileen Mayo: A Natural History takes place from 12 February to 3 July 2022. Find out more and how to visit the exhibition on the Towner Eastbourne website: www.townereastbourne.org.uk

Tapestry Courses at West Dean range from a part-time two-year Foundation Diploma, a one-year Graduate Diploma in Fine Art specialising in Tapestry Weaving, leading to an MFA, as well as, short courses for all abilities including a recently released online tapestry course. Visit the West Dean website here: www.westdean.org.uk