ISSUES

ISSUES is happy to present the late textile artist Maria Adlercreutz’s first solo show at the gallery. The exhibition will include 14 weaves from several stages in Maria’s artistic career. Maria Adlercreutz (b. 1936 ✝ 2014) was the first artist to incorporate news photography in weaving. In the fifties, she studied in the textiles department at Konstfack University of Arts Crafts and Design in Stockholm which was devoted to making the craft an artistic expression in its own right. Maria became a pioneer in pushing the medium beyond its limits and started making commissions for churches. After a trip to Spain under fascist rule in 1966, Maria became politically engaged and so did her work. Incorporating media imagery in her textiles was a radical move and her suite of Vietnam war protest weaves became a symbol for the protest movement in the seventies. The weave I hennes ögon bevaras folkets ljus (In her eyes, the light of the people is kept) was shown in 1972 at Galleri Heland in Kungsträdgården, Stockholm and was immediately bought by the National Museum. Her work was widely displayed in galleries and exhibitions during the 1970s and hung in public spaces, libraries, embassies and other institutions. Maria explained her motive for weaving as a means “to survive, to seek to free myself from strong inner pressures. To openly report my anxiety - and thereby perhaps come to terms with it.”

Maria continued to weave until her passing in 2014. Women’s rights and solidarity with people of the third world were consistent themes alongside close studies of stones, shells and plants. She collected materials from the plant kingdom to dye her own yarns and incorporated found materials from her lived environment such as cords and plastics. Maria saw the visual richness in nature and our built environment as a training ground for seeing.

Textile as an artform is intimately connected to our contemporary condition. Digital technology shapes our everyday life and weaving, the method Maria employs for her textiles, is fundamentally digital with its vertical warp and horizontal weft mimicking the pixel. The weaving loom preceded modern computing with punched cards that used binary code to produce patterns. Fragments and Details – Weaves and Studies is a confluence between the slow and methodical and the fast and innovative. The exhibition can perhaps help us better balance our relationship with the pervasive and connective potential of the digital.

One of Maria’s textiles from 1963 was exhibited in the group show Potpourri at ISSUES last year. Now, ISSUES presents a solo show with the artist curated by Valdemar Gerdin exhibiting a selection of textiles from several stages in her artistic career. Her work is represented in the National Museum of Sweden, Moderna Museet, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Röhsska museet, Skissernas museum, Södertälje konsthall, Eskilstuna konstmuseum and Uppsala konstmuseum.

Maria Adlercreutz b. 1936 ✝ 2014, lived and worked in Stockholm.

Maria was born in 1936 in Stockholm, Sweden to an artistic family. Her father, painter Akke Kumlien was appointed curator of Thielska Galleriet on Djurgården in Stockholm in 1946 where she and her family moved into Thielska’s official residence. After graduating from Konstfack University of Arts Crafts and Design in 1962, Maria established herself professionally working with church textiles such as the altarpiece at St. Göran’s chapel in Kjesäter and Värmdö church outside Stockholm. In the 70s, her work was widely exhibited in galleries, public spaces and institutions. She strongly believed art should meet broad audiences and stimulate further conversation. Riksutställningar organized the traveling exhibition Vävda Bilder which exhibited several of her textiles to a greater Swedish public, especially those living outside Stockholm.

Maria continued making art throughout her entire life devoted to political tribulation in third world countries and impressions from the natural world. She was also inspired by theater, poetry and music. The Theodorakis Suite, a series of five tapestries from 1978, were inspired by the Greek folk and protest singer Mikis Theodorakis, who was imprisoned by the Greek military junta in the 1970s. Later in life, Maria again had her residence and workplace by Blockhusudden, next door to Thielska Galleriet. She died in 2014 at Djurgården.