Exhibit brings friends ‘Together Again’

The art of two old friends is reunited through an exhibition of tapestry, paintings and collages.

The Durham Arts Council’s exhibit “Silvia Heyden and Edith London: Together Again,” on display in the SunTrust Gallery of the Durham Arts Council, showcases the work of two Durham-based artists: tapestry weaver Silvia Heyden and the late painter and collage artist Edith London.

Heyden, originally from Switzerland, and London, from Germany, met in Durham in the 1960s while their husbands were working at Duke University and remained friends until London’s death in 1997.

Heyden said her method of creating tapestries is unique but difficult because she improvises and weaves without a design, a skill that, 50 years later, she is still perfecting.

“I’m now 87 years old, and how long can I keep doing it?” she said. “I really think of handing it down to the next generation, so that some people at least understand what I was working on for tapestry as an art form of its own.”

Heyden said she admires London’s paintings and thinks London would have been interested in seeing the show for herself, which features her paintings from 20 years ago together with Heyden’s new tapestries.

“The show is really gorgeous, beautifully put together,” Heyden said. “Every wall has a combination of paintings and tapestries in a different group, but on each wall we have a conversation as we always had. The painting and the tapestry are really talking to each other.”

Lee Hansley, the exhibition curator, said that Heyden approached the Durham Arts Council about having the show, but said she would not do it unless they incorporated London because she wanted their work shown together.

“They are both devoted to art,” Hansley said. “These tapestries and these paintings are read the same way. You look at them and enjoy them the same way. It’s just interesting that they work so well together, and they are two completely different ways of working.”

Hansley chose the work that is featured in the exhibit and said it was exciting to lay out all of the pieces and physically put the show together, which he organized into “suites” of work that relate to each other.

Margaret DeMott, director of artist services at the Durham Arts Council, said it has been a privilege working with Heyden and those who have worked to make the exhibit happen.

“‘Together Again’ is an exhibit that has both of their work together that shows kind of how these pieces talked to each other even though they are different media,” she said. “They are not trying to do the same thing. They’re both working out of their own path and their own calling, but the work still talks to each other.”

DeMott said she hopes people will be inspired by the works of the two women and the evidence of their individual journeys.

“I’m hoping that people who have never heard of them get a better understanding of history because they were here and doing work that was receiving critical acclaim,” she said. “They helped to lay the ground work for the visual arts community in Durham.”

arts@dailytarheel.com