Jagoda Buić Croatian, 1930-2022

Jagoda Buić was best known for her immersive installations and work in textiles, which she began creating in the mid-1960s. Drawing on her profound connection to theatre, antiquity and her Dalmatian roots, Buić’s multidisciplinary creative practice encompasses scenography and set design, costume design, works on paper and collage. By dispensing with the traditional loom, she gave her tactile works a new and powerful corporeality, boldly venturing into three-dimensional space and creating large-scale ‘textile environments’.

Born in Split, Croatia, Jagoda Buić has exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions, including the important 1969 exhibition ‘Wall Hangings’ at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which signalled the entrance of textile into the art world. Solo exhibitions have recently been held at MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2017); ORIS House of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia (2016); Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2016); and the UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France (2014). Her work featured in the Venice Biennale in 1968, 1970 and 2001, and she represented the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the 13th Biennale de São Paulo in 1975, where she was awarded one of the most prominent contemporary art prizes – the Grand Prix Itamaraty. Other awards include the UNESCO Award (1994); the Picasso Golden Medal, UNESCO (2104); the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award (2015); and the Elle Style Awards – Lifetime Achievement Award (2015). Her work features in major collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art of Zagreb; the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam; the Metropolitan Museum in New York; and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, amongst others.