Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa

Department of Textile Art

The collection housed in the Department was started in 1952. Presently, there are 3 700 items included in the inventory in three distinct sets: historical tapestries, contemporary textiles and documentation.

The collection of historical tapestries includes textiles dating from 5^th century to the 20^th century and displays the rich variety of stylistic conventions, diversity of types and techniques characteristic of West European, Polish and oriental weaving. The oldest items are fragments of Coptic textiles. Interesting sets are those from Brussels, Delft, Audenarde, Aubusson, Beauvais (from 14^th to 19^th century). The biggest set, with over 1 000 items, represents West European silk fabrics with patterns – for garments and decoration – manufactured in Italy, France, England, Germany and Russia (15^th to 19^th century), with supplements of lace examples (from 17^th point de Venise up to 20^th century from Ireland) and haberdashery (braids, bands, galloons from 17^th to 20^th century). The Oriental collection, which includes silk woven patterns, printed and painted Asian textiles (Damasks, brocades, suzani, fukus, batik, ikat) is dominated by rugs from the East (over 200 items). This set includes tied carpets, prayer books, kilims, sumacs, tapestries, verni, zili and cici as well as various accessories (bags, slip-covers, belts) from Caucasus, Persia, Turkey, Central Asia as well as single examples from India, China, Near East (19^th and 20^th century). Interesting sets of Cashmere shawls are complemented with eastern and European imitations.

Among Polish textiles the biggest set includes rugs (kilims) with the earliest ones from 18^th and 19^th century (from Podole, Kiev region, Małopolska) and a rich collection of the 20^th century items, especially from inter-war period – the time of kilim frenzy. They were manufactured according to designs by outstanding artists (ex.: Bogdan Treter, Władysław Skoczylas, Kazimierz Brzozowski, Edward Trojanowski, Karolina Bułhakowa, Eleonora Plutyńska, Zofia Kodis-Freyer, Wanda Kossecka, Jan Malik) as well as in handicraft workshops (ex.: in Gliniany, Okno, Kosow, Lviv, Cracow, Warsaw, Zakopane, Łódź) and they illustrate preference for traditional patterns inspired by old textiles as well as by Art Nouveau or Art Deco style. Other important collections include sets of silk made-up textiles: sashes both Polish and imported (18^th-19^th century), Buczacz tapestries (end of 19^th century up to 1939). A numerous group of Polish embroideries can be seen in liturgical textiles and robes (15^th to 19^th century). The most recent textiles are grouped to form a set of bed- and table cloths (18^th to 20^th century, a collection of decorative and occasional jacquards (copies of famous paintings, portraits of well-known persons from the 19^th and 20^th century as well as in a set of 90 textiles-reconstructions manufactured in 1960s-1980s in the co-operative “Art Handicraft” in Łódź, which were used for four decades to decorate historical, government and public spaces.

The collection of contemporary textiles is the biggest and the most representative illustration of the recent history of the Polish textile art after 1945. It includes works by almost 400 creators manufactured in almost all centres cultivating fibre art in Poland (Warsaw, Cracow, Łódź, the Baltic coast, Poznan, Wrocław). More than 1 000 pieces are experimental works: new wall-hangings and rugs, relief tapestries, soft sculptures and installations. Among them you we can find works awarded at world exhibitions and competitions in Venice, Lausanne, Sao Paulo, Kyoto and at the International Triennial of Tapestry organized by the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź. They document the output of four generations of the most outstanding Polish artists, starting from the creators of the “Polish school of tapestry” - Magdalena Abakanowicz, Anna Bednarczuk, Emilia Bohdziewicz, Maria Chojnacka, Barbara Falkowska, Kazimiera Frymark-Błaszczyk, Włodzimierz Cygan, Helena and Stefan Gałkowski, Marta Gąsienica-Szostak, Ada Kierzkowska, Lilla Kulka, Barbara Levittoux-Świderska, Maria Łaszkiewicz, Józef Łukomski, Jolanta Owidzka, Urszula Plewka-Schmidt, Stefan Popławski, Andrzej Rajch, Jolanta Rudzka-Habisiak, Wojciech Sadley, Antoni Starczewski, Bolesław Tomaszkiewicz. The collection of contemporary textiles includes also decorative textiles, characteristic of the 1940-1960s, big-size and smaller, manufactured on jacquard and dobby looms, sumac and embroideries (ex.: by Maria Bujakowa, Alicja Francman, Eleonora Plutyńska, Wanda Szczepanowska, Janina Stankiewicz, Anna Śledziewska) painted and printed textiles (ex.: Maja Berezowska, Anna Fiszer, Stefania and Andrzej Milwicz, Hanna Milewska, Helena Rogalska, Anna Wójcik, Maria Zielińska), art carpets and industrial prototypes (ex.: Danuta Eymont-Szarras, Krystyna Szczepanowska-Miklaszewska, Halina Ładanowska). The most extensive set comes from the Artists’ Co-operative „Ład” (1926-1996) in Warsaw (Lucjan Kintopf, Julia Grodecka, Zofia Czasznicka, Helena Bukowska, Karolina Bułhakowa, Hanna Kiedrzyńska-Berbecka, Wanda Manteuffel, Zofia Matuszczyk-Cygańska, Jadwiga Zaniewicka, Wanda Żółtowska). The collection is supplemented by a set of painted silks – an expression of creative inquiry from the 1990s as well as a collection of miniature textiles collected from 1983. The collection of textile art by foreign artists, which is the effect of intensive international contacts and the triennial organized by the museum, grows continuously and includes 150 items by 120 artists – it forms an important pendant to the set of the Polish fibre art. The collection of documentation, gathered from 1971, includes several thousand designs and cartons, fabric samples as well as source documentation, which refers to the Polish 20^th century textiles centres and fibre artists. The most extensive sets are: archive of Lucjan Kintopf and Halina Karpińska-Kintopf. In the collection there are also designs by: Józef Mehoffer, Leon Wyczółkowski, Maria Jarema, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Janina Tworek-Pierzgalska, Lena Kowalewicz-Wegner and Adela Szwaja. Designs and fabric samples from the State School of Art Industry in Cracow, patterns and drawings of kilim products from workshops in Małopolska (Gliniany and Cracow) as well as from the State School of Industry for Girls in Łódź form a considerable part of the collection. Painted documentation of sashes by Karol Wawrosz made in 1895 is an interesting set.

The items were displayed at 160 exhibitions in Poland and 70 presentations abroad, prepared by the department.

Małgorzata Wróblewska-Markiewicz
Senior Curator
Head of Department of Textile Art