Anna Buczkowska

You are cordially invited to the exhibtion of Anna Buczkowska, which is part of the programme "Common Threads, Common Weaves." The History of Warsaw’s Artistic Textiles: A Series of Exhibitions and Archiving Workshops.

Opening: 11 May 2024, 7 p.m.
Exhibition: 12 May–22 June 2024
Foksal 11/4, Warsaw
Curator: Marika Kuźmicz, collaboration: Adam Parol
Display: Łukasz Izert

Co-financed by the City of Warsaw
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund

In 2024, the Arton Foundation is working on the archive of Anna Buczkowska, (b. 1943). The artist uses artistic textiles, collage, painting and drawing. From 1965 to 1971 she studied painting and artistic textiles at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She graduated with honours in 1971 from the painting studio of Prof. Stefan Gierowski and Prof. Mieczysław Szymański. In 1972–1975 she was the artistic director of the Tapestry and Carpets Studio of the "Ład" Artists' Cooperative. She has taken part in over 70 collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In 2013 she was awarded the title of Honoured Citizen of Konstancin-Jeziorna and the "Meritorious for Polish Culture" badge of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Buczkowska's weaving is a unique and original proposal in the field of Polish textile art. In terms of technique, her works are firmly rooted in the folk tradition associated with hand-spun wool and the use of natural dyes, which was well established at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts – to some extent, this was the common starting point for many artists working with textiles in the 1960s and 1970s.

At the same time, however, Buczkowska's works took on unusual forms. Some of them bordered on the edge of conceptual or hyperrealist work, as the artist transferred everyday objects into the medium of fabric with extraordinary precision, often literally weaving them into her works. Her tapestries contain real-life themes and motifs, some of which are critical, existential and ecological in nature. The tendency to expand and redefine the boundaries of the textile medium, which was present in Polish art several decades age, takes on a new meaning in the case of Anna Buczkowska.
The exhibition at the Arton Foundation features a selection of Anna Buczkowska's woven works, as well as her drawings and sketches, focusing in particular on an analysis of the artist's creative process.

The presentation is part of an exhibition and research programme dedicated to the history of the phenomenom of Polish Textile School.