IZABELA MARCJAN – Structural Textile

Izabela Marcjan. Structural Textile

A retrospective exhibition of Izabela Marcjan covers a wide selection of the artist’s work, from the early objects made in the late 1960s to the last ones, dating from the late 1990s. Her extremely original oeuvre, unmatched in Poland and worldwide, resulted from an experimental approach to textiles and the invention of a new weaving technique, Marcjan’s signature product.

In a natural way, thanks to the profound understanding of the tricks of the trade and the development of her own original idea, the author of a new language of textiles took advantage of the properties of the medium. Marcjan’s double-warp tapestries, often referred to as double textiles, most often invoke the world of nature, the elements and human emotions that assume both abstract and realistic forms and are expressed by the artist with utmost sensitivity. Designed and woven by Marcjan herself, the large-sized works are exquisite as to form and sophisticated as to colour, even when their tonality is subdued or nearly monochromatic.

Marcjan’s works, meant to be displayed on a wall like classical tapestries, break free from the flatness of a woven image. This is possible thanks to their spatial nature and “duality”, or the doubling of the warp. The duality in textiles, consistently employed by Marcjan since the onset of her artistic career, makes her objects look like dense reliefs and makes them appear, despite their strong “connection with the wall”, three-dimensional. This allows Marcjan to stand out from other contemporary artists who experiment with textiles.

The title of the show Structural Textile points to one of the most prominent aspects of Marcjan’s oeuvre, namely the exploration of the language of textiles via studying their essence and limits. In the structure of textiles the artist sought new possibilities of artistic expression, with a total respect for the craftsmanship and ideological and material properties of the medium.

Active in Białystok and living here all her life, the artist is one of the most eminent and recognisable artists of the region. The solo exhibition in Arsenał gallery is the most comprehensive exhibition of her oeuvre to date. It includes among others her best-known works, such as Source II (1970),  Confession (1976) or To Touch (1981).

Izabela Marcjan was born in 1934. Between 1955–60 she studied at the Department of Textile of the State Higher School of Visual Arts (PWSSP) in Łódź. She graduated in 1961 from Prof. Antoni Starczewski’s studio of unique textiles. She had numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad and was a laureate of many awards. Her work can be found in the collections of Arsenał Gallery in Białystok, Muzeum Podlaskie in Białystok, Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw, Museum of Weaving in Kamienna Góra, and the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź. Izabela Marcjan died on January 2, 2013.