HUNGARY

This is her first large solo exhibition and it raises a number of artistic and intellectual questions. In its millennia-long history,
tapestry is itself the truly historical genre: it is linked to the depiction of events.

Under the influence of Aubusson, the famous French workshop where she studied and gained experience, she renewed the
tradition of leaves and tufts of grass, breaking them down to different colours. By so doing, she renewed traditional tapestry
weaving. From this was born an experimental soliloquy in colour and light. Against a Late Medieval and Early Renaissance
background, abstract historical and figural visions appear concerning the natural world. It is as if we can derive from the
millefleurs field the remembrance of human or figural shapes and their rebirth in her woven pictures. Accompanied in them
is a nostalgic ‘quiz’ of medieval and Renaissance decorative inscriptions that change their colour and form, so that we may
discover with them and behind them the concealed, maybe serious, meaning of their winning looks. In the historical genre,
religious aspects are not inevitable. Here none are expressed. Nevertheless, devotional elements, of a more private kind, do
accompany the analysis.

In all this, her work is classic in conception and is restrained. Could such a work become a public
treasure? In her life Ildikó Dobrányi, would have protested at this idea with a smile. Nevertheless, with her works and her
organisational activity she fulfilled a mission among us.

 

European Tapestry's Artistic Metamorphosis at the New Millennium

As a tapestry artist I wanted to understand why the evaluation of this "royal" genre is so problematic. What are the causes of the frequent instability of classification, changing of function and position during the history of the genre, which had long lasting influences. The question of the classification of the genre is debated nowadays thanks to the new critical theories in critics of modernism, canon and critical museum-studies. The art historical classification in the 19th century contributed to downgrading of the tapestry, because tapestry was not classified as mural genre but as a subcategory of applied arts on the basis of textile technique being used, which had come to regarded lower compared to canvas in the newly established hierarchy of genres. So tapestry was sent to museums of applied arts. However, even before the foundation of museums, the genre of tapestry could not fulfill the criteria of modernity because it was not able to separate itself from the ancient techniques of handicrafts.

The aim of my dissertation is to enlighten the historical background of the negative evaluation of the genre; i.e. to enlighten the causes of it's falling to victim and its connection to modernity. I wanted to put into historical context the changing of the function, position and language of the genre and to distinguish the way of autonomous tapestry art from the traditional way of tapestry art that needs a weaver. Another goal of my dissertation is to summarize and interpret the process resulted in the metamorphosis of tapestry. This process began in the middle of the 19-th century with the Arts and Crafts Movement and reached its heyday around the new Millennium. The introduced process serves as a background to my activity, as I was and still I am active agent of the newly reborn autonomous tapestry art.

You can download here the whole dissertation, but only in Hungarian

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