The exhibition Anna Thommesen, Weavings at SMK presents the most comprehensive survey of the Danish textile artist Anna Thommesen (1908–2004), whose monumental tapestries transformed the medium of weaving into a distinctive form of modern abstract art. Across more than five decades, Thommesen developed a rigorous visual language built from colour, rhythm and geometry, exploring variation and repetition as central compositional principles.
Before a tapestry was woven, its composition was developed as a precise coloured drawing or watercolour on graph paper. The grid allowed Thommesen to calculate the structure of the weave, mapping colour, rhythm and proportion square by square. These drawings functioned both as visual compositions and as technical instructions for the weaving process.
The exhibition design also draws direct inspiration from the graph paper that underpinned Thommesen’s practice. The layout and spatial organisation of the installation interpret the grid as an architectural principle, translating the logic of the drawings into a three-dimensional exhibition landscape.
Developed in close dialogue with SMK’s curatorial team, JAC Studios designed the exhibition architecture as a spatial framework that reflects this underlying logic of structure and grid. At the centre of the installation is a bespoke timber framework suspended from the ceiling, forming a modular system for displaying the tapestries throughout the gallery.
The suspended structure organises the exhibition as a sequence of open rooms and visual axes where the woven works can be experienced freely in space rather than solely against the walls. The timber frames create a rhythmic grid throughout the gallery, echoing both the structure of the loom and the measured compositions of Thommesen’s drawings.
Alongside the tapestries, the exhibition presents archival material including sketches, tools and personal belongings, offering insight into Thommesen’s life and practice as a pioneering female artist. Her work draws deeply on nature as a source of inspiration, reflected in the colours and materials of the tapestries and in her interest in natural dyes and the processes of harvesting and dyeing yarn.
As part of the exhibition experience, visitors are invited to engage with this process themselves. Guests can create their own tapestry compositions by drawing patterns and colour fields on graph paper, mirroring the method Thommesen used when developing her woven works. The exhibition also highlights Thommesen’s many commissions for public spaces and interiors, demonstrating how her woven works were conceived in dialogue with architecture.
