Gail Rothschild met museum cloisters

The Heroes Project

at The Met Cloisters

Artists on Artworks presentation

April 6, 2025

The Heroes Project celebrates the ongoing effort by the Met Cloisters to conserve a rare series of early medieval tapestries.

I have been privileged to observe the intimate working of the Met’s textile conservators. The structural replacement threads they insert keep these massive but delicate tapestries from self-destructing under their own weight become a part of my composition.

I paint a close-up section of the tapestry in its current worn, torn, repaired and clumsily patched state. Broken warp threads form shadows in the Heroes’ faces creating new personalities that the weavers never intended. My paintings honor the long history of these tapestries, revealing a portrait of this moment in their long lives.