New Tapestries for The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

On January 1, 2021 a group of new tapestries for the Sanctuary Wall of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at Los Angeles, California were unveiled. The new works retain key elements of the original group of tapestries made for that space but adds images of Mary and angels, the namesakes of the Los Angeles Cathedral. The new pieces were installed in September of 2020 and were then covered until formal presentation on New Year's Day 2021.

Sanctuary Wall tapestry installation 
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles, California | September 2020

Sanctuary Wall tapestries
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles, California | January 1, 2021

 Sanctuary Wall | View from the cathedral nave
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles, California | January 1, 2021

Sanctuary Wall tapestries | Five Panels | Jacquard Tapestry | 30 x 9.5 feet each | John Nava 2020
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles, California | January 1, 2021

Detail - Center Panel | Sanctuary Wall tapestries
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles, California | January 1, 2021

Sanctuary Wall | View from the cathedral transept
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles, California | January 1, 2021

Notes on the Sanctuary Wall Tapestries

The new Sanctuary Wall tapestries in the Cathedral present an image of Mary, Our Lady of the Angels. Like the earlier tapestries made for the Cathedral this new group refers to both the long heritage of the Church and to its presence in the “New World” - our world. In keeping with ancient tradition the image of Our Lady overlooks the Cathedral interior as similar holy figures have done in the numberless chapels, basilicas and cathedrals of the Roman church. Here the five tapestries form a polyptych - a woven evocation of so many multi-paneled sacred altarpieces of the past.

The tapestries are composed of layered images. Overarching all is a great circular geometric pattern meant to evoke the infinite - the Divine. It radiates from the center panel and is derived from Cosmatesque mosaics found throughout Romanesque period churches in Italy especially. The pattern mirrors a similar one that appears above the scene in the tapestries at the opposite end of the church in the Baptistry. The theme of a radiating circular pattern begins in this cathedral on the tiled floor centered below the altar.

In the left and right hand tapestry panels the ground is overlaid with another linear pattern - the streets of Los Angeles.

Making sense of this image of our own city bonded with the great circular design is a layer of text that appears in the two inside panels on either side of the center. These words come from the Book of Revelation. “See the home of God is among mortals, God will dwell with us, And we will be with God, And we will be God’s people.”  

The images of the angels that accompany Our Lady appear in the left and right side panels. These are derived from 17th century types painted by indigenous artists trained by friars during the early days of the Church in the Americas.

Mary, in the center tapestry, is cloaked in traditional blue. Her white chemise features a golden floral design drawn from the pattern of the embroidered robes of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This reference to the holy tilma, along with Mary’s Latin American features, present this woven Virgin as, also, a “New World” image of Our Lady.

The figure of Mary glows at the center of the composition. Her gesture is a classic one of openness, of reception, of acceptance towards the faithful before her. At the same time, however, her hands also stretch downward to meet the raised hands of her Son on the bronze cross below her. This relationship connects the tapestry image to the specific sacred elements and space of this church. As the central figure in a cathedral named for her the image aims to convey a certain serenity and gravity and to be a focus of inspiration and source of solace.
John Nava

December 31, 2020

Museum of Ventura County Collection

The Museum of Ventura County has acquired Big Platter, a 27 foot wide tapestry that features the promenade near Surfer's Point in Ventura. The work was installed in November 2020 and will be kept on permanent display.

Big Platter | Installation view - Museum of Ventura County

Big Platter | Installation view - Museum of Ventura County

Big Platter | 87 x 330 inches | Jacquard Tapestry mounted on Panel | John Nava 2017
Collection: Museum of Ventura County

Big Platter | Installation preparation - Museum of Ventura County - November 2020

Big Platter | Installation  - Museum of Ventura County - November 2020

Notes on Big Platter from a 2018 exhibition:

The Sea

Degas, said any artist who sets up outdoors to paint should be watched by the police and stung with “just a little buckshot”*. Without going that far I have generally thought of myself also as a studio artist - doing my work within that quiet and private space. For me the exception has been the shore where, over the years, I have set many of my pictures. Perhaps the coastal region we all share exerts a powerful pull and draws out even the most solitary painter. It is the meeting place of air, water and earth - vast, timeless and always beautiful. It has been my particular fascination to place ourselves - the human image - into this nexus.

Ventura Promenade

There is a long tradition in art of the Arcadian image. Arcadia as the setting of an harmonious image of people within nature. For me Seurat’s famous “Grande Jatte” is a modern (19th century) version of this image. A quiet, sunlit shore with the bourgeoisie of Paris taking the place of the idealized shepherds who populate the Arcadian paintings of Poussin. “Big Platter” (“grande jatte” translates as “big platter or bowl’) makes the Ventura Promenade the setting for my version of this image. The promenade near Surfer’s Point is, in fact, a magnetic gathering place for our community - a place where all sorts come to stroll, to surf, to rest in the sun.  We find ourselves immersed in this beautiful nexus of shore, sea and sky completing the composition. I wanted to make Ventura’s own Arcadian image.  

The Tapestry

The “pointillist” painting manner used in the “Grande Jatte” is another memorable aspect of Seurat’s masterpiece. In the early 1800’s the optical blending of color was an innovation of the recently developed technology of Jacquard weaving. The directors of Jacquard’s tapestry mills worked out the phenomenon of the juxtaposition of colored fibers in weaving and wrote about it. Seurat read and made notes about these discoveries and translated the ideas into paint using distinct touches of color that “blended” at a distance to create the image. In “Big Platter” I took the image back into the Jacquard weaving medium that inspired Seurat. In another allusion to Seurat’s pointillism I developed a sort of colored mosaic of patched texture in the weaving to depict the scene.

John Nava

* ”If I were in the government I would have a brigade of policemen assigned to keeping an eye on people who paint landscapes outdoors. Oh, I wouldn't want anyone killed. I'd be satisfied with just a little buckshot to begin with.”

Edgar Degas