She came to Paris every summer and we walked the same three neighborhoods every year. We talked about everything. I will walk those streets again. But only once.
3 months ago
Annette Claire Dubois
May 22, 1970 – March 9, 2026 · 55 years
"She lived as if beauty were an obligation."
Biography
Annette Claire Dubois was a celebrated textile artist, poet, and professor from Lyon, France, who spent the last 20 years living and working in New York City. Her tapestries hung in galleries from Paris to São Paulo. Annette taught visual arts at the Parsons School of Design and was beloved by students for her exacting eye and her enormous warmth. She published two collections of poetry, both bilingual — French and English. She died at 55, in the middle of a project, the way she would have wanted. She is survived by her partner James, her mother Colette in Lyon, and a studio full of unfinished work that is already being called important.
Messages & Tributes (18)
+ Write a MessageHer textile work is in three of my favorite museums and I visited each piece before I knew they were hers. After I learned, it made a strange kind of sense.
3 months ago
Annette reviewed my gallery proposal and spent two hours helping me sharpen it. She owed me nothing. She said: "It is in the work." She meant helping young artists.
3 months ago
I was her student assistant for two years. She taught me to look at things three times — once fast, once slow, once with your eyes closed.
3 months ago
I purchased one of her tapestries in 2009 and have never stopped looking at it. It changes every time the light changes. Every time I change.
3 months ago
She critiqued my student work with such honesty and such kindness that I left her office feeling both humbled and capable. That is extremely difficult to do.
3 months ago
We grew up on the same street in Lyon. Annette was always making something — drawings on the wall, costumes, jewelry from wire. She never stopped.
3 months ago
Annette Dubois was the finest visual artist and the most generous teacher in our department. The students adored her. The work endures.
3 months ago