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.

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

Railway Spine

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

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.

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.