TAPESTRY IN SERBIA 1950 -2000 / Art of a Structured Thread

Wednesday, 21^st March, 2018, at 6 p.m., “Žad” Gallery, MAA

Participants: Ljiljana Miletić Abramović, MA, Director of MAA, Goranka Vukadinović, Curator of “Atelje 61”, Prof. Jerko Denegri, PhD, reviewer and Mirjana Teofanović, PhD, author

Publishers: Museum of Applied Art, Belgrade and “Atelje 61”, Novi Sad

Since the 1950s a tapestry has also been occupying its place in the artistic creation of Serbia. Its appearance can be directly linked to a European tapestry that, after several centuries of decadence and languishing in the shadow of painting, just then experienced its renaissance. Undoubtedly, our first tapestry artists have built their visual experiences on the works of both old and contemporary European masters.

The book “Tapestry in Serbia 1950-2000”, by Mirjana Teofanović, PhD, represents the first comprehensive depiction of Serbian tapestry art, which experienced its true expansion during the second half of the 20^th century. In that period, many Serbian tapestry artists created anthological works in this art. The author has supplemented the book’s main topic with a summarised history of European tapestry, thus enriching the basic text with the information on the masterpieces of tapestry throughout centuries.

As Prof. Jerko Denegri, PhD, has emphasised… ”Mirjana Teofanović, PhD, presents the essence of her understanding of the specific character of the tapestry medium as the art of a structured thread, which is the bearer of artistic values and the subtlest element of its composition. The author also advocates the position whereby the tapestry is a fully-fledged, independent, artistic discipline, and, by no means, only one of the sub-disciplines of applied art”.

The book consists of three interconnected units.

The book’s first part, Art of a Structured Thread, contains a summarised overview of the development of tapestry art, from the earliest times to the mid-20^th century, when Serbia, through its works, flew into the continuity of the history of tapestry in the world. The main goal of this brief overview is to fill the void created by the lack of texts about the history of tapestry in our language. Furthermore, this part of the book also explains an essential stylistic feature of modern tapestry, the parallel existence of a two-dimensional and thee-dimensional form, which was born in the context of various interpretations of the new code of visual arts during the renaissance of European tapestry in the first half of the 20^th century.

The book’s second part, Development of Tapestry in Serbia, primarily refers to the events that initiated this art in our country, to the characteristics of the social and historical circumstances in the post-war Yugoslavia and Serbia, to the important moments and events in culture that made such development possible, to significant actors and key promoters of tapestry art in Yugoslavia, such as “Atelje 61”.

The book’s third part, Protagonists and Followers, is directed at indicating and emphasising the particularity of individual poetics of our tapestry artists. The reason for taking such a position lies in the author’s belief that every work of art is completely open to reception. All artists have individually discovered their own language of form in which they have created the original world of forms, as an expression of individual poetics. All of them, together, have contributed to the development of the history of tapestry in Serbia, which has become an authentic and special part of the heritage of European modern art.