Before Abakanowicz: The Roots of Poland’s Textile Revolution
The history of the Polish school of textile art did not begin in 1962 at the Lausanne Biennial, but years earlier at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. It was there that the elements of the curriculum that would later become hallmarks of the Polish school of textile art were established: formal experimentation, the use of unconventional materials, and creative freedom combined with an understanding of the specific characteristics of the fabric used.
Much has already been written about the great success of the Polish delegation at the First Lausanne International Tapestry Biennial in 1962, and about its aftermath. Texts devoted to this event quote the enthusiastic reviews in the Swiss press or recount the legendary, even frantic, preparations of the artists and the extraordinarily energetic efforts of Krystyna Kondratiukowa [the first director of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź – ed.], who strove to provide the artists first with materials for their work and then with the opportunity to travel to Switzerland.
A direct consequence of this successful Polish presence in Lausanne was the emergence of the concept of the ‘Polish school of textile art’ and the subsequent international successes of its representatives, foremost among them Magdalena Abakanowicz, who, just three years later, in 1965, was awarded a gold medal at the São Paulo Art Biennial. This cemented her standing in Poland and bolstered her international career, which continued to develop and flourish over the next decades. The following years also brought spectacular successes for other representatives of the Polish school of textile art; it is worth noting that in 1969, six Polish artists (out of a total of twenty-eight) participated in the famous Wall Hangings exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Alongside Abakanowicz, the exhibition featured Zofia Butrymowicz, Barbara Falkowska, Ewa Jaroszyńska, Jolanta Owidzka and Wojciech Sadley.
Let us, however, return for a moment to Lausanne in 1962. All the works exhibited there: Kompozycja Białych Form (Composition of White Forms) by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Muzyka (Music) by Ada Kierzkowska, Cisza (Silence) by Jolanta Owidzka, Oświęcim (Auschwitz) by Wojciech Sadley, Drzewa i Słońce (Trees and the Sun) by Anna Śledziewska, Uliczka (The Little Street) by Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet, and Gobelin z Runem (The Tapestry with Fleece) by Maria Łaszkiewicz – the latter two, brought personally by Kondratiukowa in a suitcase, were included in the exhibition at the very last moment but were not reproduced in the catalogue accompanying the Biennial – were created within the circle associated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Anna Śledziewska was a lecturer there. Owidzka graduated from the Academy in 1952, followed a year later by Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet. Wojciech Sadley completed two degrees at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, receiving his diploma from the Faculty of Interior Design in 1954 and from the Faculty of Painting in 1959. Finally, Ada Kierzkowska and Magdalena Abakanowicz graduated from the Academy in 1955.
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Maria Łaszkiewicz, photo: Warsaw Branch of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers
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Only Maria Łaszkiewicz was not directly connected with the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. She was, however, one of the founders of the Experimental Studio of Artistic Weaving at the Association of Polish Artists and Designers in Warsaw, for which she opened rooms in her home in Bielany and made her own workshop equipment available. The studio was used by, among others, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Jolanta Owidzka. From its founding in 1951 until 1965, Łaszkiewicz served as its official director. When Alice and Pierre Pauli, the initiators of the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennial, visited Łaszkiewicz at her studio, they also met her student, Magdalena Abakanowicz, who was working at her looms.
Except for Łaszkiewicz, all the Polish participants in the Lausanne Biennial studied at Eleonora Plutyńska’s Handweaving Studio; some also studied under Mieczysław Szymański at the Studio of Classical Weaving Techniques. These studios were established within the Faculty of Painting, where Anna Śledziewska, who headed the Jacquard Studio, was employed. It was under her supervision that Magdalena Abakanowicz completed her degree. In his book Abakanowicz. Trauma i Sława [Abakanowicz. Trauma and Fame], Paweł Kowal suggested that, later in life, Magdalena Abakanowicz claimed that Eleonora Plutyńska had been the supervisor for her degree, though he did not cite the source of this claim. We are therefore dealing with a phenomenon whose roots lie not so much in generational factors as in cultural ones. That is why, in this text, I focus on the sources of the success of Polish artistic textiles in the 1950s and 1960s, and on selected aspects of the history of teaching this medium at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which was the driving force behind its development in Poland.
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Magdalena Abakanowicz, Kompozycja Fakturalna (Textural Composition), 1967, tapestry technique, sisal and cotton on a linen warp, 150 × 180 × 20 cm, collection of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź
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The history of the Polish school of textile art is a particularly good example of a polyphonic narrative about art. It demonstrates the immense power of knowledge and skills passed down from generation to generation, as well as well-planned teamwork and the mutual complementarity of competencies. All this and more – which I will discuss shortly – contributed to the almost simultaneous emergence of so many talented individuals with progressive, creative thinking.
It all began, however, much earlier. In August 1946, with her characteristic insight, Eleonora Plutyńska – who would later become a teacher of Abakanowicz, among others – wrote to Stefan Szuman:
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[…] those times have faded into the past, and today we open our eyes wide to take in this new reality, and we want – that is to say, we are trying – to be part of it. For it would be a shame if it were to break down into ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’ with no continuation. For our children, who are yet to be born, let something remain. Each of us, in our own way, is starting afresh – so that further threads […] can be woven. New horizons have now opened up. Zosia [Zofia] Baudouin de Courtenay has been invited to the Department of Mural Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where I am also to teach a few hours of ‘weaving’.
Plutyńska aptly captured the essence of the matter in her letter. She also expressed what she considered essential, namely that the future curriculum should combine current trends with the achievements of Warsaw educators prior to 1939.
The weaving courses, held at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw (the institution bore this name from 1904 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1932), were initially taught by Józef Czajkowski and, from 1923, by Wojciech Jastrzębowski. Their work was continued by their students, including Helena Bukowska, Lucjan Kintopf (later the first director of the ‘Ład’ Artists’ Cooperative, established in 1926), Eleonora Plutyńska, Anna Śledziewska, and Mieczysław Szymański, who studied painting under Tadeusz Pruszkowski.
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International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. Polish Section. Part of the exhibition by the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw: Cours Général. Études de composition donnant la forme générale et les surfaces (a syllabus for the course on the Composition of Solids and Surfaces by Wojciech Jastrzębowski), 1925, photo: National Museum in Warsaw
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In 1923, the School’s curriculum was reformed – great emphasis was placed on integrating art into everyday life. Students were required to gain an in-depth understanding of the properties of raw materials and fabrics, as well as the tools used with them. The working method and the concept of the work were closely linked to the method of its execution. The School’s curriculum was innovative and closely aligned with the principles of the Bauhaus, with students undertaking a compulsory course in materials science before choosing their further specialisation. Walter Gropius and the teachers he employed successfully challenged the distinction between conceptual work on a piece and its actual creation. This approach was central to what the School taught and translated, among other things, into the Poles’ success at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925. However, the School’s programme had much further-reaching consequences.
It seems that Plutyńska, in particular, found her place within this newly formulated curriculum, recognising textile as a creative medium. She approached the School’s Governing Board to request an exemption from extracurricular activities and permission to specialise in weaving. The professors who probably had the greatest influence on her were Józef Czajkowski and Wojciech Jastrzębowski. The former attached great importance to sensitising students to colour, its understanding and impact. He also encouraged them to seek inspiration within themselves and in nature. Among other things, he used an impressive collection of butterflies as a teaching aid. As Plutyńska herself said, Czajkowski’s corrections, his models, and his teaching on the value of durable and authentic materials had a significant influence on her future professional life.
One of her memories was meeting the professor in the school corridor. Czajkowski was carrying skeins of naturally dyed raspberry-crimson wool yarn, and as he passed his student, he remarked with emotion: ‘This is genuine cochineal; cherish these treasures.’ Plutyńska repeatedly emphasised that without Czajkowski she would never have learnt about natural dyes, and that it was he who established the dyeing workshop at the School of Fine Arts at the ‘Ład’ Cooperative, headed by Wanda Szczepanowska, Eleonora’s sister, also a graduate of the School of Fine Arts and a chemist.
Jastrzębowski, on the other hand, who was not much older than Plutyńska, drew the students’ attention to the harmonious elements of folk art and the interplay between ornament and form. He encouraged them to develop their own approaches. As a result, Plutyńska embarked, as she herself put it, on a ‘search for the secret of lost beauty’ hidden within folk textiles. She abandoned machine-woven wool in favour of hand-spun wool dyed with plant-based dyes. A thorough understanding of the raw material one wished to work with, together with a search for new weaving materials and original weaving techniques – all this later found expression in the programme she developed when she returned to work at the Academy of Fine Arts after the Second World War.
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Professors and graduates of the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, 1931, photo: National Digital Archives (NAC)
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Today, looking back, it seems that the process of reintroducing weaving courses at this educational institution in 1945 was a natural one – but this is a misconception. The matter proved quite controversial. It is true that the Senate of the Academy of Fine Arts discussed establishing a Weaving Department as early as January 1946, but Felicjan Szczęsny Kowarski opposed creating such a unit. Bohdan Pniewski, on the other hand, was in favour, hoping to link the Academy of Fine Arts with the large state-run weaving mills that were to be established. His concept ultimately prevailed.
Anna Śledziewska, also a pre-war student of Karol Tichy, Czajkowski and Jastrzębowski, applied for a post at the Academy and was the first to head the Department of Weaving (1946–1947). In June 1947, the Senate awarded her the title of associate professor, but by November the same body had expressed the view that her teaching skills were inadequate. The reasons for this opinion are unknown, but it was most likely unfair, as Śledziewska continued to work at the Academy in the years that followed, supervising numerous dissertations, including the aforementioned thesis by Abakanowicz. Towards the end of 1947, Mieczysław Szymański was appointed head of the unit; he ultimately ran a studio at the Faculty of Painting dedicated to tapestry, or rather carpet-making.
Plutyńska, Szymański and Śledziewska played a distinctive role in the creative explorations of the young post-war generation, and it is, in fact, difficult to say definitively whose influence was the most significant. Rather, it is worth noting that, thanks to this particular programme, students had the opportunity to acquire a range of skills.
Reflecting on the work of the Department of Textiles and analysing the education received by the founders of the Polish school of textile art, Irena Huml highlighted in particular Eleonora Plutyńska’s Handweaving Studio, where:
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[…] The actual process of weaving was treated with particular care. It was a creative mystery unfolding at the loom, in which a piece was created from nothing more than instructions or a small sketch, crafted with the weaver’s own vision and considerable freedom, much like a painting on canvas. The professor transferred this method, drawn from her experiences with folk weavers in the Białystok region, to university practice, calling it the ‘off-the-top-of-the-head method’. Anna Śledziewska taught the precision required in drawing motifs and the orderly, rigorous composition of the design necessary for the work. As a sensitive colourist, she paid particular attention to colour blends – a significant strength of this technique, which has excellent artistic prototypes dating back to the pre-war ‘Ład’ Artists’ Cooperative. The third studio, dedicated to tapestry, was led by Mieczysław Szymański. […] It was also in his studio that the earliest attempts and experiments with non-woven materials were conducted.
All these aspects of artistic training – creative freedom combined with an understanding of the specific characteristics of the materials used, sensitivity to colour, formal experimentation, and the use of unconventional materials – have become the hallmarks of the representatives of the Polish school of textile art, including, of course, Magdalena Abakanowicz.
The Polish school of textile art in the 1960s was a creative, polyphonic continuation of the achievements of artists who had explored textile art before the Second World War. These were the ‘further threads’ referred to in the title, which Plutyńska wished for. At the same time, it was precisely this current in Polish art that became not only one of the most significant manifestations of the emancipation of textiles, but also a definitive crossing and blurring of the boundaries between the so-called applied arts and the fine art.
Bibliography:
M. Stopa, Eleonora Plutyńska. Wielka dama polskiej tkaniny, Warsaw, 2025
Ksawery Piwocki, Historia Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie 1904–1964, Wrocław 1965
Wojciech Włodarczyk, Akademia sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie w latach 1944–2004: 100 lat Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Warsaw 2005
‘Splendor tkaniny’, [exhibition catalogue], March–May 2013, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw 2013
Translated from Polish by Agnieszka Mistur