Etelka Tobolka Boško Petrović Milica Mrđa-Kuzmanov Boško Karanović Mladen Srbinović

1988 has to be remembered by a very important event, which would radically change the further development of the Atelier 61. By a decree of the District Court of Novi Sad, the Museum Collection of Tapestries was established and verified, as a subsidiary, and no less important activity of the Atelier. The chance was finally gained for the cultural heritage, created over the decades in the workshop, to be systematically preserved and added to.

By the end of 1987 more than 500 tapestries were made. A large number of the woven works, among them many necessary to the correct reconstruction of the development of Yugoslav tapestry, were permanently lost through sales and acquisitions, as a measure for the financial stabilising of the workshop in years of crisis. The state of affairs in the storage rooms, where the tapestries were kept, was not, however, a disappointment: from the crates and the shelves intended for the storing of weaving materials the weavers found and spread on the floor tapestries which even by European and world standards were achievements of the highest rank. The connoisseurs of this unusual visual medium were certainly surprised by the great creative and certainly material value of the tapestries, which, with the founding of the collection were given due treatment.

Within the Museum Collection, as the court decree specifies, museum material is collected, inventoried, studied, sorted, preserved, exhibited and popularised. All of the tapestries that were found in storage at that time, and there were barely a hundred of them, were inventoried, marked by the number of execution and inventory and preserved from possible damage. In the same way, as material of special importance, numerous sketches and paintings for tapestries were also preserved, subsequently restored and placed in archives awaiting a second or even third execution, and they were declared the inalienable property of the Atelier 61, whereby their authenticity was protected.

The forming of a documentation section within the collection, an extensive effort which was begun by Julka Džunic, was continued in the rare moments of spare time by Nada Adžic. She has devoted equal effort to the creation of card files for the not so large library of the Atelier 61, whose existence has made possible at least the study of the origins and development of tapestry in the region. The lively exhibiting activity, which has been continuous since the founding of the Atelier 61, satisfies the remaining criteria for the “exhibiting and popularising of museum material”. It should also be mentioned that during the 90s the Atelier 61 has opted for speed and efficiency and to that end it has acquired computers, especially for the growing number of tapestries in the collection and the growingly diverse activity of the documentation section.

The enlarging of the collection, which each year grew by ten woven creations, required a professional to take care of this activity. Since 1998 all the work connected with the Collection of Tapestries of the Atelier 61 and the business of the Gallery of Tapestries, opened in 1999, has been under the supervision of an art historian as curator.

Already by the early 90s the Atelier gained the exclusive right, in its aim at high criteria, to announce competitions for tapestries. The quality of the paintings is decided at the sessions of the Art Board, whose members are elected by the Atelier. Namely, from the time of the founding of the Collection of Tapestries, all the works woven in the workshop, with the exception of those made to order, have become the property of the Atelier, with the clear intention of enriching the collection with new, original and authentic works, to make it varied, in the art of tapestry abundant, that is, unique, just as the Atelier 61 itself is. For this reason, in the selection of various painting designs a special effort has been made at modern world experience in the field of spatial tapestry and the introduction of new materials and this has been especially accepted by younger artists. A large number of authors of all generations, competing with the conceptions, which created a renaissance in the always-vital plain wall tapestry, equally with those, whose ideas have taken them into the problems of interdisciplinary efforts, are valid testimony to the new attractiveness of weaving at the Atelier 61.

Today the Atelier 61 Collection of Tapestries is in possession of about 200 valuable pieces, for which the painting designs and patterns have been made by 125 artists. Due to the large amount of the museum material, the collection is divided into sections, which are formed by several important categories. In addition to tapestries selected at competitions, there are a large number of tapestries made at four unique tapestry colonies held so far in Yugoslavia. They make up the Tapestries from Colonies section “Tapestries by Authors by Invitation” are especially important, especially if one bears in mind that the paintings for them at the invitation of the Atelier 61 were created by artists, whose works have marked the development of Yugoslav art, and who have also been given a chance to try themselves out in this form of artistic expression. Since 1999 the Atelier 61 has given an annual award to an author who has made a significant contribution to the development of Yugoslav tapestry. This award is accompanied by the putting on of a one-man exhibition of the awarded artist and the making of one of his tapestries in the workshop, and so the section “Tapestries by Awarded Authors” came about in the collection. Also, once a year, a competition is announced for a “student tapestry”, whereby this medium is revealed as inspiring and potent for the creativity of the youngest artists, and the collection gains in its diversity. The gift donation of tapestries to the Atelier 61, which has created a new section in the Collection, is a nice gesture, certainly worthy of note.

This unique collection, by the number of items is certainly the richest one in Yugoslavia, yet it is housed in the inadequate space of the storage rooms, along with the materials and the other accessories for weaving and exhibition activity. Still, on one wall enough space was found for stands on which twenty tapestries can be displayed, while the others, rolled or folded up, piled one on top of the other, wait for some exhibition or other occasion to be presented to the public. The doors of the storage rooms are always open to tapestry lovers, and to those who are encountering this medium of the fine arts for the first time. For this reason, this conclusion should also be understood as an invitation to a welcome visit, and as an appeal for help in solving this major problem.