Mary Farmer (6 August 1940 – 1 February 2021) was a UK-based weaver of tapestries and rugs, she led developments in tapestry in the late 20th century with a number of roles across higher education culminating in Course Director at the Royal College of Art. Her client list included royalty, government departments, major corporations, museum collections and private collectors.
A 2023 Government Art Collection posthumous reception featured her work, both with the tapestry Buzz On at the reception by Admiralty Arch, London and a collection of works by audio visual presentation. The Tapestry Buzz On is now (2024) at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Whitehall and the other two commissioned works in this series, Buzz on II and Buzz On III moved to the British Embassy in Rome, Italy in 2023. An early rug, together with a contemporary tapestry are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Early life
Mary Farmer was born Mary Quinton Farmer on 6 August 1940 in Newbury, Berkshire, to Edith Anona Jane Farmer (née Quinton),and Seldon Charles Forrester Farmer, Principal Probation Officer for Berkshire Probation Service and latterly Inner London Probation Service's longest serving Principal Probation Officer. Farmer's family relocated to Beckenham, Kent in 1948/9.
It has become evident during this research that her mother was also an accomplished Lacemaking, Dressmaking and Weaving artist being a member of the London Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers from shortly after its inception to the mid 1980s. However unlike her daughter most of this was known locally rather than internationally.
Education
Farmer's Secondary education was at Sydenham High School. with Further Education at Beckenham School of Art (1958–1961).
Music
Mary Farmer was an accomplished flautist, playing flute for the Ernest Read London Junior Orchestra from 1957 to 1960. By the end of 1960 she had made her career choice in the Visual Arts.
Visual Arts Career
Farmer's career in the Visual arts began at Beckenham School of Art (1958–61) where she initially focused on painting.
However, she went on to be trained in rug weaving with Gwen and Barbara Mullins at Graffham Weavers, combined with part-time study at Farnham and Reigate Art Schools.
Establishment of weaving studio
She moved to Digswell House, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1964 and to Guildford, Surrey in 1967, combining home life and work studio from this point forward. However it was not till her move to Boston, Lincolnshire that her studio and workshop could really focus on her work with less constraints due to its design as a commercial building with an area converted for living accommodation, rather than the other way round.
Farmer was awarded a Digswell Arts Trust Fellowship (1964–1967), a residency programme established in Hertfordshire by Henry Morris and artist potter Hans Coper.
Early career
One of her first major commissions was a multi-segment rug (2.75m x 2.75m) for the Ambassador's residence at the British Embassy in Paris, France in 1966. The cine film recording that production process was digitally transferred from the original silent Super 8 film.
From the late 1960s through to around 1981, she taught at an undergraduate level, predominantly at West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham, Surrey, but also Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, Bromley, Kent and Liverpool Art School amongst others.
Her early career saw she major exhibition tours (see below, but also the attention of private Gallery owners such as Henry Rothschild with inclusion at Primavera Gallery in 1965-6 and Joan Crossley-Holland at the Oxford Gallery from its establishment in 1968, intermittently through most of her career. Farmer regularly showed works at the British Crafts Centre and Northern Crafts Centre, including with the Red Rose Guild.
Following her marriage to ceramicist Terry Moores they established a joint workshop and home in Boston, Lincolnshire.
After a brief use of her married name, she formally registered Mary Farmer as a business name.
Royal College of Art
Farmer was appointed Tutor in Post-Graduate Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 1981, later being promoted to Course Leader, Tapestry. She oversaw the move into School of Fine Art in 1985, and later as Course Director of MA Tapestry until 1995. Several of her students went on to successful careers of their own including Jennie Moncur, Jeni Ross, Philip Sanderson, and Jun Tomita (specifically known for Japanese Kasuri weaving).
She was awarded a Fellowship in 1988 and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Art in 1995, at the point of her retirement and the tapestry course closure.
Career outside academia
Throughout her academic career she was active in the art and craft of weaving rugs, tapestries and tapestry woven rugs. Many of these were shown around the world. Solo show, show with her partner ceramicist Terry Moores whose later works reached towards abstract sculptures, and group shows with or selected by many of the leading lights in the world of arts and crafts.
Her work has been selected to adorn the catalogues of Sotheby's, Christie's and most recently Lyon & Turnbull.
Memberships
Contemporary Applied Arts previously British Crafts Centre and Crafts Centre of Great Britain
Council of Management Contemporary Applied Arts
Crafts Council
Grants & Loans Committee
Index Selection Committee
Exhibition Committee
Bursary Selection Committee
Appointed Member of Council Education Committee in 1988
Lambeth Palace Chapel & Crypt Restoration Programme
Consultant Member of Chapel Advisory Group
Fibre arts
Red Rose Guild
Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers
London Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (February 1963 to February 1967)
Member of Editorial Committee of Quarterly Journal of the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers from 1964 - 1966
Society of Designer Craftsmen
Southern Arts Association
Committee Member
Major exhibitions and shows
Details of the majority of known and verified exhibitions can be found on the ArtFacts.Net website.
Mary Farmers work was incorporated in over 250 exhibitions, so only ones significant to her career are shown here. This included several landmark tours by internationally renowned institutions. More detail can be found in a Timeline created in association with the 2024 exhibition Mary Farmer: A life in Tapestry.
External examiner
Middlesex Polytechnic: BA (Hons) Tapestry
Liverpool Polytechnic: BA (Hons) Fine Art (Painting)
West Dean College: Advanced Diploma Course in Tapestry
Later career
In 1990 Farmer suffered a severe shoulder injury which significantly curtailed her weaving career.
The MA Tapestry Course at the Royal College of Art closed in 1995 and Farmer went into retirement after over a decade of the challenging situation with the course's sustainability.
Works in public collections
Brighton and Hove Museums, Sussex, three tapestries on long term display at Hove Museum of Creativity
Tapestries Give the Slip 1 and Give the Slip 2
Tapestry Red Letter
Contemporary Art Society, London, England
Tapestry In the Blue
Rug Hover (The Wilson (Cheltenham))
Tapestry Tip-Off (Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery)
Crafts Council Collection, London
Tapestry Bright Side
Tapestry Black Mass
Rug 5H
Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey
Tapestry Penumbra
Miniature Tapestry Flash Back 3
Tapestry Blue Heaven
Tapestry Silent Night
Kneeler sample and design from the Rugs for Churches commission for Liverpool Cathedral
Government Art Collection, London
Tapestry Buzz On
Tapestry Buzz On II
Tapestry Buzz On III
Oxford Education Committee (work and location unknown)
Works in corporate collections
Channel 4 Television Company Ltd
National Bank of America, City of London
Tapestry Void
Tapestry Volume
British Oxygen Company
Pace Petroleum
Later personal life and death
Her husband, Terry Moores, died in 2014.
Mary Farmer remained largely independent into later life; however, she suffered acute illness during the COVID-19 pandemic and died on 1 February 2021 in Boston, Lincolnshire.
Legacy
Ann Sutton made a number of pieces of her collection available in the Modern Made auction in 2023, including a significant piece, the tapestry, Float 1) by Farmer. Interest in the work and contribution that Farmer made to art in the late 20th century.
A reception was held in November 2023 at the Government Art Collection adjacent to Admiralty Arch as a memorial to Farmer, featuring the Tapestry Buzz On which has been in their collection since 1977. Whilst exposure of these pieces is normally limited to government, diplomats and their staff, with a piece currently at Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Whitehall, London and the other two at the British Embassy in Rome, Italy. However, their viewing was restricted to GCHQ, Cheltenham staff from 2011 to 2019 and whilst viewing may have been restricted, their presence did not escape The Times, although they attributed them to the wrong Mary Farmer.
Renewed recognition has been evident since her death with a major solo exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre in 2024. 2025/6 she was an invited artist as part of The British Tapestry Group 20th Anniversary celebration. The Victoria and Albert Museum have acquired the tapestry Soft Flight, a major piece reserved for many major exhibitions internationally during her lifetime.. In 2026 the Oxford Ceramics Gallery included one of Mary Farmer's pieces in the Crafts Council Collect Art Fair at Somerset House.