DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23631#0104
they became accepted by the public at large and the whole process was marked by sharp controversies
and disputes. During the 1960s and 1970s Polish art changed completely. Free unrestricted development
of art permitted evolution of various styles and did not bypass the broad domain of applied art.
First to respond were artists engaged in weaving, which was not surprising since this craft was always
closely related to drawing and painting. The revolution in the art of weaving was effected virtually
within a single generation. Students taught by Eleonora Plutynska at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts
had excellent understanding of the qualities of both folk and historical-style weaving and were fully
familiar with traditional methods. However they set their hearts upon winning a place of their own among
the privileged arts, namely painting and sculpture. They rejected the ornamental and utility convention
in favour of unique, unrepeatable design as an expression of their own artistic individuality. An impulse
for the implementation of their novel ideas was provided by progress in interior design which stimulated
demand for elaborate, colourful, sophisticated compositions, free of superfluous anecdote. Following the
First Tapestry Biennale in Lausanne in 1962, where novel ideas in weaving were unrestrictedly displayed,
experiments multiplied and attracted many artists who were shortly to take the lead as the world avant-
garde in weaving. Artists now executed their designs personally, thus becoming authors of their works
from start to finish. One of the most arresting techniques was a kind of structuralism by which the artist
exposed the inner structure or skeleton of his or her tapestry. The next step forward was spatial or three-
dimensional tapestry, the innovation of equally momentous significance as the introduction of cubism
in painting. With one difference, however: in artistic weaving, this three-dimensionality was real, not
simulated and took the viewers into a space time continuum since a tapestry changed its aspect with their
every movement. In fact, tapestries came to resemble sculptures rather than paintings. Artists
also abandoned former restrictions in the choice of material and reached for new materials which helped
them produce surprising colour and textural effects. They also made tapestries ol monumental dimensions
suitable only for palatial interiors, art galleries and museums. Such tapestries were no longer objects of daily
utility and were meant to stir the viewer's imagination. The whole galaxy of talented artists, who paved
the way for this extraordinary phenomenon on a world scale, grew out of the tradition of artistic
craftsmanship, but exceeded its rigid bounds incommesurably. They were Ada Kierzkowska, Maria
Laszkiewicz, Jolanta Owidzka, Wojciech Sadley, Anna Sledziewska, Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet, and
first and foremost Magdalena Abakanowicz. At the Lausanne Biennale mentioned above, all these artists
exhibited their work, winning admiration of viewers and critics alike. The tapestry exhibited by Magdalena
Abakanowicz, woven in tape and cotton string and entitled Composition in White Forms, broke all
previous links with painting and steered the art of tapestry making toward autonomous regions. Soon
after, many young artists turned to weaving and a Polish school of tapestry was born. They exhibited
their work at subsequent biennales and individual and group shows in Western Europe and America. Mag-
dalena Abakanowicz continued to impress viewers with her inventive three-dimensional compositions
which came to be known as Abakans. The Central Museum of the Textile Industry, opened in Lodz
in i960, which had Poland's largest collection of tapestries, conducted theoretical research in the art
of tapestry making. Groups of tapestry artists were formed in Lodz (Kazimiera Frymark-Blaszczyk,
Zofia Litak, Danuta Sienkiewicz and Boleslawa Tomaszkiewicz) and Cracow (Lilla Kulka, Ryszard
Kwiecieh, Maria Lizuniec, Romana Szymahska-Pleskowska, and Teresa Terakowska). Next to these modern
two- and three-dimensional tapestries, traditional Polish style tapestries continued to be made of wool
dyed in natural vegetable dyes above all by the Galkowskis who were past masters in this field.
After i960, ceramic art entered the field of interior design as both an element in arranging space and
part of decoration of walls and facades. At the same time it almost completely abandoned its utilitarian
functions and entered the realm of pure art producing unique works very close to modern sculpture, or
actually sculptures enriched through all the possibilities inherent in ceramic material.
National and international exhibitions played an important role in the development of the ceramic
art since they provided excellent opportunity for comparison and rivalry. At an exhibition held in Warsaw
in i960, Krzysztof Henisz, Zygmunt Madejski and Boleslaw Ksi^zek displayed picture plates in bas-
relief intended as decorations for facades of buildings, which were made experimentally at the Kamionka
Cooperative in Lysa Gora. At another Warsaw exhibition held that same year, Helena and Lech
Grzeskiewicz showed a number of large ceramic compositions for interior decoration, particularly
partition walls in subtle colours with chiaroscuro effects. Helena and Roman Husarski and Maria
Lodkiewicz, all from Cracow, composed a huge ceramic mosaic showing an array ol Polish knights, lor
and disputes. During the 1960s and 1970s Polish art changed completely. Free unrestricted development
of art permitted evolution of various styles and did not bypass the broad domain of applied art.
First to respond were artists engaged in weaving, which was not surprising since this craft was always
closely related to drawing and painting. The revolution in the art of weaving was effected virtually
within a single generation. Students taught by Eleonora Plutynska at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts
had excellent understanding of the qualities of both folk and historical-style weaving and were fully
familiar with traditional methods. However they set their hearts upon winning a place of their own among
the privileged arts, namely painting and sculpture. They rejected the ornamental and utility convention
in favour of unique, unrepeatable design as an expression of their own artistic individuality. An impulse
for the implementation of their novel ideas was provided by progress in interior design which stimulated
demand for elaborate, colourful, sophisticated compositions, free of superfluous anecdote. Following the
First Tapestry Biennale in Lausanne in 1962, where novel ideas in weaving were unrestrictedly displayed,
experiments multiplied and attracted many artists who were shortly to take the lead as the world avant-
garde in weaving. Artists now executed their designs personally, thus becoming authors of their works
from start to finish. One of the most arresting techniques was a kind of structuralism by which the artist
exposed the inner structure or skeleton of his or her tapestry. The next step forward was spatial or three-
dimensional tapestry, the innovation of equally momentous significance as the introduction of cubism
in painting. With one difference, however: in artistic weaving, this three-dimensionality was real, not
simulated and took the viewers into a space time continuum since a tapestry changed its aspect with their
every movement. In fact, tapestries came to resemble sculptures rather than paintings. Artists
also abandoned former restrictions in the choice of material and reached for new materials which helped
them produce surprising colour and textural effects. They also made tapestries ol monumental dimensions
suitable only for palatial interiors, art galleries and museums. Such tapestries were no longer objects of daily
utility and were meant to stir the viewer's imagination. The whole galaxy of talented artists, who paved
the way for this extraordinary phenomenon on a world scale, grew out of the tradition of artistic
craftsmanship, but exceeded its rigid bounds incommesurably. They were Ada Kierzkowska, Maria
Laszkiewicz, Jolanta Owidzka, Wojciech Sadley, Anna Sledziewska, Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet, and
first and foremost Magdalena Abakanowicz. At the Lausanne Biennale mentioned above, all these artists
exhibited their work, winning admiration of viewers and critics alike. The tapestry exhibited by Magdalena
Abakanowicz, woven in tape and cotton string and entitled Composition in White Forms, broke all
previous links with painting and steered the art of tapestry making toward autonomous regions. Soon
after, many young artists turned to weaving and a Polish school of tapestry was born. They exhibited
their work at subsequent biennales and individual and group shows in Western Europe and America. Mag-
dalena Abakanowicz continued to impress viewers with her inventive three-dimensional compositions
which came to be known as Abakans. The Central Museum of the Textile Industry, opened in Lodz
in i960, which had Poland's largest collection of tapestries, conducted theoretical research in the art
of tapestry making. Groups of tapestry artists were formed in Lodz (Kazimiera Frymark-Blaszczyk,
Zofia Litak, Danuta Sienkiewicz and Boleslawa Tomaszkiewicz) and Cracow (Lilla Kulka, Ryszard
Kwiecieh, Maria Lizuniec, Romana Szymahska-Pleskowska, and Teresa Terakowska). Next to these modern
two- and three-dimensional tapestries, traditional Polish style tapestries continued to be made of wool
dyed in natural vegetable dyes above all by the Galkowskis who were past masters in this field.
After i960, ceramic art entered the field of interior design as both an element in arranging space and
part of decoration of walls and facades. At the same time it almost completely abandoned its utilitarian
functions and entered the realm of pure art producing unique works very close to modern sculpture, or
actually sculptures enriched through all the possibilities inherent in ceramic material.
National and international exhibitions played an important role in the development of the ceramic
art since they provided excellent opportunity for comparison and rivalry. At an exhibition held in Warsaw
in i960, Krzysztof Henisz, Zygmunt Madejski and Boleslaw Ksi^zek displayed picture plates in bas-
relief intended as decorations for facades of buildings, which were made experimentally at the Kamionka
Cooperative in Lysa Gora. At another Warsaw exhibition held that same year, Helena and Lech
Grzeskiewicz showed a number of large ceramic compositions for interior decoration, particularly
partition walls in subtle colours with chiaroscuro effects. Helena and Roman Husarski and Maria
Lodkiewicz, all from Cracow, composed a huge ceramic mosaic showing an array ol Polish knights, lor