Czech Center New York presents a selection of contemporary modern quilt created by the best female quilt artists from the Czech Republic. The exhibition is curated by Jana Štěrbová, artistic director of international textile exhibition PPM QUILT SHOW BRNO and author of modern wall quilts as well.
Where: Gallery, Czech Center New York
Opening times: Monday - Thrusday 10 AM - 5 PM
American premiere, showcasing selection of contemporary modern quilt created by the best female quilt artists from the Czech Republic.
Artists: Bára Bartošová, Eva Brabcová, Iva Brzáková, Romana Černá, Renata Edlmanová, Helena Fikejzová, Jana Haklová, Naďa Harbichová, Mirka Kalinová, Jana Lálová, Věra Skočková, Jana Štěrbová, Irena Zemanová
Curated by: Jana Štěrbová
The exhibition is organized by the Czech Center New York in collaboration with PPM Brno and supported by SAQA.
Opening reception: Thursday, June 30th, 2022 at 7 PM
The evening will also feature Lucie Vítková, composer, accordion player and performer from the Czech Republic, living in New York. In a new piece for the opening, Lucie Vítková is going to play the accordion, harmonica and voice. This new piece is based on the quilts from the exhibition which are going to be read as graphic scores.
Registration here.
Contemporary Czech Quilt
At first glance, the word "quilt" is nothing special to American audiences as it’s one of the most commonly used terms in their vocabulary since childhood and accompanies them throughout their lives. Having grown up in the "cradle of patchwork and quilting," it must be difficult for Americans to even fathom that only 1 in 100 people in the Czech Republic know of the word "quilt." And for most of those who do know of it, they use “quilt” and “Scottish kilt” synonymously. Even more fascinating is the story of Czech quilting, despite it only being present on the world stage for less than 20 years.
To fully grasp this phenomenon, we must travel back to the period following World War II when Western Europe discovered patchwork and quilting as an interesting hobby and female, European artisans saw the quilt as an expressive means of artistic creation, all thanks to American presence in the region. At that time, Czech women had completely different concerns. A lack of ordinary, quality clothing and anything outside of the ordinary grey hues found in clothing shops may have led Czech women to the sewing machines, but this was for completely different, practical reasons. For our story, however, it's here where we must look for the root causes of the quilt's later success: a sewing machine in almost every household, domestic seamstresses with increasing skill, the art of making something interesting and different out of ordinary textile pieces, and the ability to improvise. Czech women managed to do all of this despite the total lack of patterns and templates.
The Velvet Revolution in 1989 not only brought forth a new era of freedom, but also signaled a significant turning point in everyday, practical life. In the first few years after the revolution, the selection of modern apparel and home accessories as an accompanying phenomenon of the country's shift towards a more Western lifestyle was dazzling, but it eventually wore off after a while. Czech women began to miss the joy of having something handmade and longed to return to the sewing machine. After the year 2000, they were suddenly given an answer to their woes: patchwork and quilting!
From the perspective of the American and Western-European quilting public, this was a baffling start for Czech quilting as it began without any traditions; without an established system of clubs, associations, regular meetings, and exhibitions; and without museums and galleries as a backdrop.
But on the other hand, why not? Czech female artisans had everything they needed: sewing machines, plenty of fabrics, and a high level of skill, and they were used to designing and improvising themselves. It was enough for them to take a few basic courses, learn from the experiences of those who had encountered patchwork before when they were abroad, read the first available magazines and books, and learn from their first interactions with neighbors across open borders.
The first Czech quilts were purely classic in nature complete with patchwork tops, but very soon some of the more creative artisans switched to modern quilts. At that time, the internet was not yet widely available, and for many, foreign instructions were equally unavailable due to the language barrier. Massively organized courses across the Czech Republic brought up both new artisans and trainers in a matter of a few years. Czech women began traveling to foreign exhibitions and gradually discovered a whole range of quilts from traditional to more modern styles. In 2007, Prague hosted its 1st Annual Prague Patchwork Meeting (PPM), an international exhibition that definitively connected Czech female quiltmakers with the outside world and, for the first, time showed foreign visitors Czech works. Bilateral inspiration, the increasing number of quilts on display, and thousands of visitors helped catapult the PPM and Czech quilting to the top European level in less than 10 years after the actual start of quilting in our country. A truly remarkable story!
And the next chapter was written by modern Czech quilting. Europe began to appreciate new female artisans from the Czech Republic, the most prominent of whom received their first invitations for solo presentations at prestigious events, as well as cross-sectional collections for the whole Czech Republic. The motivation to create, experiment with new materials, and design original works was supported by the PPM exhibition and its associated circle of Art Quilt Club members who held beginner's courses in special techniques and incorporated foreign innovations.
The success of Czech quilting is due to the strong, individual stories of female artisans. Without their constant work on new projects and their willingness to exhibit their works and further pass on their knowledge, the Czech quilt would not be represented in so many international collections and in private and museum collections, including in the US. Czechs are also represented in the prestigious SAQA organization.
In the collection presented by the Czech Centre, 13 female artisans from all over the Czech Republic will present their quilts. The works of Jana Lálová illustrate her shift from a classical style to a more modern design while Romana Černá and Jana Štěrbová represent big names in the European art quilting of today and teach quilting on an international scale. Irena Zemanová and Jana Haklová offer different views on the contemporary quilt and also have experience exhibiting their works across Europe. The emerging generation of Czech quiltmakers is represented by Bára Bartošová, whose works are characterized by her distinct, colorful style and high precision. The Art Quilt Club and its collections have also brought forth Eva Brabcová, Helena Fikejzová, Mirka Kalinová, Iva Brzáková, and Nadia Harbichová among leading quilt artisans. In contemporary Czech quilt, figural work is not commonly represented, but Renata Edlmanová's portraits of prominent figures are quite extraordinary. Věra Skočková's imagery, which combine the technique of modern quilting with blueprinting and Wallachian motifs, are also quite niche.
An incredible 20 years of Czech quilting! Following classic woven tapestry and pressed collages of wool, Art Protis works, a whole new category of Czech and European textile creation was born. And thanks to the Czech Center, it can finally present itself to American audiences who have a long-standing quilt tradition.
Practically perfect and often referred to as the “American Dream”.
Jana Štěrbová, curator of the exhibition, May 2022
Jana Štěrbová is the artistic director of the international textile exhibition PPM QUILT SHOW BRNO. Her own modern wall quilts are known not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. In addition to teaching and curatorial activities, she also participates in publishing the PPM Brno online Magazine. She is a member of SAQA and Patchwork Gilde Deutschland.
The international textile exhibition PPM QUILT SHOW BRNO is the largest show of combined textile techniques not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Central and Eastern Europe. Until 2019, it took place in Prague and after a long pause, it continues from 2022 at the Brno Exhibition Center. Leading authors of the artistic wall quilt regularly take part in the exhibition. Thanks to the high number of exhibits and attendance of 5,000 people, the exhibition ranks 4th in Europe, and its level is rising year by year. More at https://www.bvv.cz/ppmbrno/.
Lucie Vítková (1985) is a composer, improviser and performer (accordion, hichiriki, synthesizer, harmonica, voice and dance) from the Czech Republic, living in New York. During their studies of composition at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (CZ), they have been a visiting scholar at Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL), California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (USA), Universität der Künste in Berlin (D), Columbia University in New York (USA) and at the New York University.
They have been nominated for 2017 Herb Alpert Awards in Arts in the category of Music, were commissioned by the Roulette Intermedium in 2017 and have become a Roulette resident artist in 2018. They have put together two ensembles – NYC Constellation Ensemble (focused on musical behavior) and OPERA Ensemble (for singing instrumentalists).
During the 2017 Mentor/Protégé Residency in Tokyo (JP), Vítková studied hichiriki with Hitomi Nakamura and have been a member of the Columbia University Gagaku Ensemble. Vítková’s teachers and collaborators include George Lewis, Suzanne Cusick, Ellie Hisama, Miya Masaoka, Petr Kotík, Hitomi Nakamura, Teerapat Parnmongkol, Jolana Havelková, Muyassar Kurdi, Haruhiko Okabe, Jaroslav Šťastný, Teodora Stepančić, James Ilgenfritz, Stevie May, and Graham Haynes.
Photo by Ines Koenitz and Corinna Mehl
PPM Quilt Show New York Opening Ceremony from BVV
