2023
Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts
Magdalena Abakanowicz. Textiles Territories
Homage to Elsi Giauque
23 June - 24 September 2023
Exhibition organised by Tate Modern, London, in collaboration with the Fondation Toms Pauli at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne and Henie Onstad, Oslo.
Curated by:
Magali Junet, Curator, Giselle Eberhard Cotton, Director, Fondation Toms Pauli
Ann Coxon, Curator International Art, Tate Modern, Mary Jane Jacob, Independent Curator
The Magdalena Abakanowicz. Textile Territories exhibition traces the early stages of the international career of Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930 - 2017), a prominent textile and sculpture artist of the second half of the 20th century. From 1962 a major figure of the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennials, Abakanowicz shaped the landscape of the New Tapestry movement for twenty years, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with her very personal output that focused on the use of organic fibre, that is a living and malleable material.
Lausanne played a key role in the development of the Polish artist’s career and personal contacts thanks to the Tapestry Biennials, the exhibitions organised by Pierre and Alice Pauli, and local collectors.
The Tate curators’ selection of works for the exhibition Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope was reviewed for the Lausanne venue and has been augmented by twenty-five works from the Fondation Toms Pauli Collection and some lenders from the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
The foundation also pays tribute to the Swiss artist, Elsi Giauque (1900 - 1989), another leading player at the Lausanne Biennials, with a dedicated room displaying her light and colourful works.
Programme & Events Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne
Magdalena Abakanowicz Seen in the Light of Contemporary Art Biennials
By Joana Badia, art historian, researcher at Sorbonne University, Paris
The monumental textile sculptures of the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017) made from organic and ephemeral fibres are an invitation to us to revise our definition of tapestry and reflect on our humanness. The lecture positions Abakanowicz’s legacy in the context of the current revival of textile art, with reference to a new generation of artists that aim to increase viewers’ awareness in the face of the many challenges of the 20th century.
2022
Zürich, Museum für Gestaltung (Austellungsstrasse)
Textiler Garten, 15th July - 30th October 2022
Works on loan (30) and collaboration
The summer exhibition of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich is devoted to the Nouvelle Tapisserie movement. Textile Garden brings together, in an atmospheric scenography, some sixty works from the Sixties to the present day. It provides a unique opportunity to see the two most important Swiss textile-art collections under one roof.
Textiler Garten exhibition + Trailer «Textiler Garten» - YouTube
Carton in German + Flyer in English
Lausanne, Plateforme 10, arcades 2 & 3
Railway Spine, Sophie Bouvier Ausländer, 18th June - 25th September 2022
Special Creation
In the connection with the inauguration of the Plateforme 10 Arts District and the Train Zug Treno Tren, exhibitions, the Lausanne artist Sophie Bouvier Ausländer, is presenting Railway Spine. The work is designed in three sculptural sequences and conjures up both the traumas of train accidents in the 19th century and those of modern-day life.
At the invitation of Fondation Toms Pauli et Plateforme 10
2021
Geneva, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum
Espace Focus, 21 October 2021 - 24 April 2022
Work on loan
Red Abakan III, the enigmatic woven sculpture by Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017), will be on view until spring 2022 at Espace Focus, International Red Cross und Red Crescent Museum. The loan was requested by the Museum in the context of their annuel theme « Gender & Diversity ».
Como, Miniartextil, 30th edition
Pinacoteca Civica, 27 April - 18 July 2021
Works on loan
Having already worked together with the Arte&Arte Association on a number of occasions, the Fondation Toms Pauli is taking part in this year’s 30th edition of Miniartextil. Works by Magdalena Abakanowicz and Olga de Amaral, two outstanding figures of the Fiber Art movement, will be displayed next to 54 contemporary artworks.
Anniversary edition programme www.miniartextil.it
2019
Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, PLATEFORME 10
ATLAS. Cartographie du don. 5 October 2019 – 12 January 2020
Works on loan
To honor the opportunity to present, at last and permanently, the rich cantonal collections, the inaugural exhibition ATLAS. Cartographie du don presents works from the collection in the entirety of the MCBA's almost 3200 m2 of exhibition space.
Works of the foundation visible in the exhibition: Petite chasse à courre au cerf, Beauvais tapestry, around 1700 ; Backs I and II, M. Abakanowicz, 1976-1982 ; Cet arbre vivra-t-il ?, M. Rousseau-Vermette, 1975
Aubusson, Centre culturel et artistique Jean-Lurçat
Mural and Spatial. How the Lausanne Biennials 1962-1969 transformed the world of tapestry, 29th June – 6th October 2019
Co-curated by Giselle Eberhard Cotton, director of the Fondation Toms Pauli, Lausanne, and Bruno Ythier, curator of the Cité internationale de la tapisserie, in Aubusson.
This summer, the Fondation Toms Pauli and the Cité internationale de la tapisserie will be presenting an exhibition in Aubusson devoted to the first Lausanne Biennials (1962 - 1969), focusing on their transformative impact on the art of tapestry in Europe and worldwide.
Le Mur et l’Espace (Mural and Spatial) will bring together some 35 large-format works from prestigious European and North American collections, providing the opportunity to discover or rediscover creations originally displayed at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne in the 1960s, including works by Abakanowicz, Adams, Brennan, Delaunay, Giauque, Le Corbusier, Picasso, Rousseau-Vermette, Yoors and others.
The Fondation Toms Pauli’s 20th-Century Collection will be represented by five works that left their mark on Biennial audiences, by the artists Buić, Chevalley, Jobin, Lindgren and Lurçat.
Psychedelic Cathedral, a woven example of monumental architecture, designed by the Swiss artists Arthur and Claire Jobin, will be displayed in the lobby of the Cité internationale de la tapisserie for the entire duration of the exhibition.
2018
Łódź, Central Museum of Textiles
Metamorphism. Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017)
Part 1: 30th November – 1st April 2018 / Part 2: 17th May – 9th September 2018
Works on loan and collaboration
The Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź is commemorating the recent passing of Magdalena Abakanowicz, an internationally renowned Polish artist whose international career started at the Lausanne Tapestry Biennials.
The inaugural exhibition will present a series of textile works preserved in public and private collections in Poland. The second part will bring together 25 of the artist’s creations belonging to the Fondation Toms Pauli Contemporary Collection.
This two-part event pays tribute to Abakanowicz’s fundamental research ranging from mural tapestry to sculpture, and highlights her pioneering role in the development of twentieth-century textile art.
2017
Lausanne Parliament, Pas-Perdus Room, Spring 2017
Work on loan
For the official inauguration of the new building of the Grand Conseil (parliament) of Vaud, the Fondation Toms displayed their Black Column tapestry, an almost 4-metre high, refined and graphic work created in 1973 by the Swiss artist, Moïk Schiele.
2016
Biel, NMB Neues Museum Biel
Lissy Funk - From Generation to Generation, 17th September - 25th December
Works on loan
For its upcoming exhibition, the Neues Museum Biel will focus on the embroidered works of Lissy Funk (1909 – 2005), as well as featuring paintings by her husband, Adolf Funk, and her daughter, Rosina Kuhn.
On loan: 8 embroidered works
In parallel: the Rosina Kuhn – From Generation to Generation exhibition at the Kunsthaus, Grenchen/Granges (until the 23rd October 2016)
Guimarães, Musée Alberto Sampaio / Contextile Contemporary Textile Art Biennial
A Textile Memory: The Lausanne Biennials
30th July – 16th October 2016
Works on loan and collaboration
After NomAadic Tapestries, the Fondation Toms Pauli is offering another perspective on the development of textile art during the period 1960 to 2000 with more than 25 works from their 20th-century collection. A Textile Memory: The Lausanne Biennials takes its place in the very contemporary environment of the third edition of Contextile.
Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts
Tapisseries nomades. Fondation Toms Pauli. 20th-Century Collection
25 March – 29 May 2016
Own exhibition
The exhibition Tapisseries nomades draws on the Fondation Toms Pauli contemporary collection. To be presented at the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, it will retrace the medium’s evolution from the 1960s to the 2000s: from classical wall tapestry to textile sculpture and from decoration to installation.
Comprising thirty works, some of them on a monumental scale, the exhibition reveals an almost unknown aspect of the canton’s 20th-century collection, in a range of works by Lurçat, Abakanowicz, Buić, de Amaral, Delaunay, Giauque and Agano. These pioneers of the postwar tapestry revival played a significant part in redefining textile art as a major expressive form.
Pforzheim, Pforzheim Galerie
Aufbruch Textil, 22nd February - 22nd May 2016
Works on loan
Pioneers of the New Tapestry movement of the 1960s, Ritzi and Peter Jacobi were active in Pforzheim for more than 20 years. Their works, together with those of several of their contemporaries including Abakanowicz, de Amaral, and Buic, have been juxtaposed with a number of recent textile works by German artists.
On loan six textile works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Olga de Amaral, Jagoda Buić et Jean Lurçat.
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