Zofia Butrymowicz

"Bella Pais" Post-Modern Abstract Polish Woven Tapestry, Textile Wall Hanging

1985

Zofia Butrymowicz (1904-1987, Warsaw, Poland) was one in a select group of Polish textile artists who were first introduced in Chicago, USA in the 1970s by legendary dealers Anne and Jacques Baruch. Butrymowicz's body of work continues to influence the fiber art world to this day. "New experiments in art have always been of interest to me" Butrymowicz once observed, "whether I agree with them or not, and therefore I never pass by and I am never indignant at any expression in art. I strongly believe that in the wide range of experiments there will also be some elements of the development of culture." During the post-war period, when the countries of Eastern Europe were locked down behind the Iron Curtain, weavers there found materials in short supply. As a result, many of these artists turned to unconventional materials such as metal, paper and reeds. Zofia Butrymowicz, of Poland, recognized for innovative works in 60s and 70s, used heavy, irregular wools, barely spun at all. In 1969, she visited Canadian weaver, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette and her husband, painter and ceramicist, Claude Vermette, outside Montreal where the couple lived and worked. Zofia and Mariette had both been participants in International Tapestry Biennials in Lausane, Switzerland in the 60s and in Wall Hangings at the MoMA in New York in 1969. Butrymowicz stayed with the Vermettes for several months, using Mariette’s looms to create tapestries that were displayed with Claude’s ceramics at a local gallery. Butrymowicz used wool from Mariette’s source. Mariette was particular about the color and intensity of her wool — she worked with technicians to perfect the spinning and dyeing so that the wool had a silky luster and dyed “more beautifully” than mechanically spun wool. The wool was a marked departure from the material Butrymowicz had access to in Poland. She “painted” her weavings with colors and shadings of yarns, including only a shimmering suggestion of a shape, often a circle, as she had done in the past, but the glisten and sumptuousness of the yarn in these works set them apart from her previous weavings. Selected exhibitions: Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; National Museum, Poznan, Poland; National Museum, Warsaw, Poland; Skopje Museum of Contemporary Art, Poland; Exempla, Munich, Germany; Museum of Modern Art, Pasadena, California; Pierre Pauli...

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Sainte-Adéle (1969) by Polish fiber artist, Zofia Butrymowicz (1904-1987), is a hand woven mid-century modern tapestry. This piece demonstrates impre...

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