Richard Saltoun Gallery presents the ethereal yet monumental textile sculptures of Polish fibre sculptor Barbara Levittoux-Świderska (1933-2019), one of the most important textile artists who transformed the tapestry tradition from decorations to avant-garde installations.

Born in 1933 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. She embraced space, extending her textile-based architectural installations beyond both home and wall, and worked on a monumental scale, producing pieces that measure up to three-metres-wide. She used materials such as horsehair, sisal and cut fabric, constructing free-standing sculptural forms that extended the capabilities of fabric and the loom.

Bringing together some of the artist’s most relevant and sought-after works, Richard Saltoun Gallery’s presentation reveals how Levittoux-Świderska took hold of fibre and thread with a newfound freedom of making, adding a unique contribution to feminist contemporary art.