"50 years of Atelier 61"

“Anastas” Gallery of MAA

The exhibition will be opened by Dr. Mirjana Teofanović, expert in contemporary tapesty and textile and long time councillor to the Museum of Applied Art

Author of the exhibition: Goranka Vukadinović, curator to the Gallery «Boško Petrović»
Exhibition curator: Bojana Popović MA, Museum Advisor, Department of Contemporary Applied Arts

Atelier 61″ from Novi Sad specialized in tapestry making and this year it observed 50th anniversary of its existence and work by organizing a retrospective exhibition of tapestries. Established in 1961 as crafting workshop for tapestry weaving, “Atelier 61” is a unique institution of its kind in the region. In the past half century it has become an important centre of tapestry making, which is represented by its rich and a valuable collection, triennials of tapestry, Tapestry Colony and the Gallery of Tapestries named after its founder Boško Petrović.
It was the intention of the Museum of Applied Art, after decades of close cooperation with the «Atelier 61», to present to its Belgrade public the exhibition which would in the best possible way illustrate developments in modern tapestry in the area since 1961. The exhibition offers view of tapestries of the most important creators in this discipline: Boško Petrovič, Etelka Tobolka, Stojan Ćelić, Dragutin Cigarčić, France Slana, Jagoda Buić, Mateja Rodići, Branislav Subotić, Nada Poznanović Adžić, Nada Mančić, Dušanka Botunjac.
Having accomplished an interesting synthesis of an old craft such as weaving and contemporary art, “Atelier 61” enriches the cultural heritage of our country with authentic tapestry medium. Cooperation with quite a number of artists from the country and abroad, whose cartoons were used for tapestries made in the Atelier’s workshop, helped building competent and reliable visually based experience of the weavers. Now, as in 1961 when the woven tapestry entered Yugoslav contemporary art, tapestry in the “Atelier 61” is still created with specific enthusiasm, outstanding talent and great passion.

Tapestry made its place among art disciplines by the originality of ideas and power of invention of artists who well understood the advantages of this kind of visual expression. In spite of autochthonic characteristics created over a long period of time and history proven qualities, tapestry is still not sufficiently recognizable in broader art community. Limiting and risky spots as regards correct positioning and evaluation of tapestry art can be easily noted in superfluous and unnecessary flirtation with trendiness and trend-setting pseudo culture. This also refers to conscious acceptance of primitive correlation with other artistic disciplines. It is exactly why the “Atelier 61” cherishes the ambition to keep purity of the medium, and in the same time to encourage experiment as inevitable integral part of the research procedures in further development of tapestry art.
The significance of “Atelier 61” has been confirmed by successful and continuous complex activities in tapestry making and includes great number of executed works, care about the rich collection of tapestries, outstanding exhibition activities in the country and abroad and important contacts with quite a number of artists, artistic associations, related workshops in the country and beyond it, which is all adequately represented at this exhibition.