Frieze Masters: Spotlight: Barbara Levittoux-Świderska

For Frieze Masters: Spotlight 2021, Richard Saltoun Gallery presents the work of the late Polish artist Barbara LEVITTOUX-ŚWIDERSKA (b. 1933-2019), who emerged out of the Polish textile tradition to transform tapestry from flat decorations to avant-garde installations. Despite her significant contributions to textile art, her work remains largely unknown outside of Poland and textile art circles.  The stand will celebrate the oeuvre of Levittoux-Świderska’s sculptural practice and elevate her profile to help her receive the international recognition she deserves.

On the occasion of the fair, we published a catalogue of Levittoux-Świderska's works, here. The catalogue is accompanied by a text by Marta Kowalewska, Chief Curator at the Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Levittoux-Świderska came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the emergence of textile art into mainstream contemporary art. Like fellow Polish textile artists Magdalena Abakanowicz and Jolanta Owidzka, Levittoux-Świderska followed the Eastern European tradition, incorporating locally sourced materials and rural folk practices to improvise new textile art-making methods and forms.