The not so long ago, the fruitful and enthusiastic fifties in the arts are linked by equal signs with the great enthusiasm of several young Novi Sad artists and their desire and need to prove and affirm themselves through art, and they were an important pretext of ideas for the founding of the Atelier 61. Boško Petrovic, Jovan Soldatovic, Aleksandar Lakic, Stevan Maksimovic…, to mention only the names of those whose works marked the first years of the Atelier 61, since they began, almost at the same time, to attract the attention of the art appreciating public of Novi Sad and take over the forgotten underground spaces of the Petrovaradin Fortress, which they transformed into their workshops. An equally important moment in the story of the Atelier 61 was certainly the exhibition of French tapestries in Belgrade in 1953, which led Boško Petrovic, a painter by vocation, to think of other techniques and materials. Motivated by the idea of the new purpose of painting, which is connected both by its content and form to its surroundings and architecture in general, he started to explore in stained glasss, mosaic and tapestry.

Boško Petrovic’s first tapestries were made by village weavers, following the precisely painted concept by the old technique of weaving according to a board, specific to the horizontal loom. The imperative to “go on searching” led him, at the turn of the 50s into the 60s, to Etelka Tobolka, who already had a concept of tapestry in the manner of the French - as a complex Gobelin technique, close to the age-old Serbian folk weaving technique.

Boško Petrovic’s new vision of fine arts and the awareness of Etelka Tobolka that this vision could be realized, was confirmed and carried out in the founding of the Atelier 61, the first Yugoslav workshop for making tapestries.

By the decree of the People’s Committee of Novi Sad Municipality, under the number 04-7035/61 of February 28, 1961, the first crafts shop for the making of tapestries officially began its activity. In the same year, in the empty rooms of Boško Petrovic’s atelier on the upper level of the Petrovaradin Fortess, the first specially constructed looms for the weaving of tapestries in the plain technique was set up. Etelka Tobolka, the first director of Atelier 61, being herself a skilled weaver, was finding and training the weavers. Under Tobolka’s professional direction and careful supervision, they quickly began to create art in wool, patiently and with feeling respecting the often very difficult and complicated demands of the artists - the authors of the painting designs. The idea of tapestry which opens a new branch of fine arts in Yugoslavia, followed by the magic of making tapestries, and certainly the temperament and great power of inspiration of Boško Petrovic, were bound to attract, without much effort, artists such as Dragutin Cigarcic, Stojan Ćelić, Mladen Srbinovic, Ankica Oprešnik, Boško Karanovic, Olivera Galovic, Milan Konjovic, Lazar Vujaklija and many others to find satisfaction for the impulses of their imagination a in a novel and unusual sphere of the visual - in tapestry. It was the presence of a great number of authors, which ment the great production of tapestries, made in the first years of the Atelier 61, attracted attention of broader public, and created, at the same time, a habit of thought on the pervading presence of tapestry in Yugoslavia art.

During the 60s and the 70s in this modest workshop there was equal intensity in thinking about weaving and exhibiting activity. The first exhibition of tapestries in the Gallery of the Belgrade Army Cultural Centre, was realised already in 1962. The Modern Gallery in Piran was officially opened in the same year by an exhibition of Novi Sad tapestries. These tapestries were then exhibited in Maribor, Ljubljana, Zagreb…the large centres of the Scandinavian countries, east Europe, Latin America. The participation at the Second International Bi-Annual Exhibition of Tapestry in Lausanne (1965), the exhibitions held in Norwich (1967), in the cities of the USA (1967, 1968, 1969), in Prague, Leipzig, Budapest and Peking (during the 70s), But, it is also a period of frequent crisis, occuring to the Atelier 61, from financial reasons, so it was often at the verge of shutting down.

In 1980, the Atelier 61 finally changed its status and became a Labour Organization for the Making of Tapestries of a special importance to society, and the Novi Sad City Assembly undersigned itself as its founder. This long awaited transformation and the newly acquired economic stability sought were not the only changes that marked the early 80s. Julka Džuniz became the new director of the Atelier 61, a woman who had known the activities of the workshop, especially its significance and renown for a long number of years, since she was the chairman of the Committee for the Acquisition of Works of Art of the Municipal Culture Council. Julka Džunic, educated as an art historian, proposed the idea on the forming of a documentation centre, which would make an inventory, photographs and professional registration of tapestries created at the Atelier 61 in the past twenty years. Despite her great ambitions and her plans conceived with enthusiasm erstablishing links with fine artists, museums and galleries, project designers and designers, the centres of the textile industry, the Academy of Arts, a large portion of the 80s is designated as a period of stagnation. Limited financial means, the lack of important orders, a meagre exhibition activity, once again brought the workshop into a difficult situation. It is important, however, to point out that during all those years, the workshop managed to maintain a high level of executed tapestries. Owing principally to this, in 1984, at the first Yugoslav exhibition of Home Crafts and Art Craft in Slovenj Gradec, the Atelier 61 received the praiseworthy title of “Master Workshop for Tapestry” as recognition of its long activity. It is also worth mentioning that the workshop also gained a significant staff of new weavers, and that its small and cramped premises were extended and renovated, owing to the initiative, good will and understanding of the sculptors Jovan Soldatović and Ivanka Acin-Petrović.

The tapestries from the Museum Collection of the Atelier 61 already in 1988 decorated the walls of new premises, a unique kind of gallery within the workshop itself. The collection was officially recognized and entered into court registers by Nada Poznanovic-Adžic, M.A., the director of the Atelier 61 since 1987. The gift of a tapestry artist already successful and affirmed and important abilities at organization brought to the personality of Nada Adžic a kind of different, a spontaneously persistent energy Her vision of tapestry could compete with contemporary trends in the world, and these high standards were demands she placed upon the authors of the painting designs and the weavers likewise. This intention was quite clear and justified since it was necessary to defeat mediocrity, which were clouding the former reputation of the Atelier 61. The members of the Art Board, who were judging at various open competitions for tapistries numerous sketches and patterns, suggestively opted for those authors who were able to understand tapestry and its unique features which made it an auchtonous visual language. Once again on the road of success, the Atelier began to revive its strength. This attitude certainly brought Yugoslav tapestry back into the forefront of art activities, the Museum Collection of the Atelier 61 was enriched by fresh and original conceptions, and its exhibition activities was revived again. Nada Adžic was not at all satisfied that the Atelier 61 should remain a workshop. Her enticing ambitions finally began to materialise. Important business moves and orders of tapestries that were paid contributed to the financial security of the workshop, and quickened ideas on new activities, which would be concentrated around the workshop as the epicentre of activity at the Atelier 61.

By all these activities the Atelier 61 came to deserve the name of a complex institution, one which deals with tapestry in every sense of the word.