Wall-Hanging with Tombstone Forms (Tapestry)
Keserü belongs to a generation of Hungarian artists that emerged in the wake of the Revolution of 1956, which had resulted in restrictions on officially acceptable art and suspicion of avant-garde art produced in Western styles—particularly abstraction. Keserü and other Hungarian artists flourished in abstract modes despite this marginalization. A vibrant unframed tapestry, Wall-Hanging exemplifies her desire to merge modern abstraction with references to Hungarian folk culture, making something with local resonance out of an otherwise international vocabulary of hard-edge painting. The undulating toothlike motif recurring throughout the composition relates to the artist’s study of gravestones at the Balatonudvari Cemetery, southwest of Budapest.
Artwork Details
- Title: Wall-Hanging with Tombstone Forms (Tapestry)
- Artist: Ilona Keserü (Hungarian, born Pécs, 1933)
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Stitching on chemically dyed linen
- Dimensions: 62 in. × 12 ft. 3 1/4 in. (157.5 × 374 cm)
- Classification: Textiles
- Credit Line: Purchase, Modern Circle Gifts, 2017
- Object Number: 2017.300
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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