March 25th, 2013

Traditional Home Feature

Helice, 1971, by Sonia Delaunay, was featured in the April issue of Traditional Home.  Simona Blau, President of Vojtech Blau, Inc., was quoted for the article and lends advice for maintaining your collection:

Whatever the tapestry, a few rules apply: Keep it dirt-free and out of the light. “The sun is a killer,” says dealer Simona Blau. “And no major temperature changes, as the fibers expand and contract. Silk is the most delicate.” When it comes to tapestry, age is ultimately less important than condition.

The following is an excerpt from the feature:

“Some designers only create the cartoon—as the preliminary design is called—and then outsource the actual weaving to a skilled workshop to create the tapestry on a loom. That was the method for some top artists of the 20th century, which saw a resurgence in a form that had changed little since the Renaissance. It was especially true among artists better known for working in other media.

Alexander Calder, famous for his mobiles, applied his unique sensibility to tapestry; so did the great modernist architect Le Corbusier and the painter Sonia Delaunay. They showed that unicorns and hunting scenes weren’t the only subjects appropriate for tapestry; the form could also be abstract or gestural.”