2021 Catalogue Archive

An important figure in postwar European textile art, Barbara Levittoux-Świderska developed her practice by incorporating traditional Polish techniques and local materials into her large-scale woven works. She began her art practice making almost exclusively paintings, where her close attention to geometric forms and texture would predict her textile work in the later part of her career. In this compelling minimalist composition of a city street scene, Levittoux-Świderska chose shades of cream and ivory to differentiate the planes of each building, which she further offsets with stark black lines incised into the canvas. A member of the Polish Textile School with fellow artists Magdalena Abakanowicz and Jolanta Owidzka, she helped shift the perception of textiles within fine art while responding to a repressive, growing nationalism in postwar Poland. Her work has been exhibited widely across Europe and the US.