Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet. I Do Not Exist For Myself | exhibition

Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet. I Do Not Exist For Myself — exhibition

20.02–04.04.2026
Vernissage: 19.02.2026 (Thursday), 7:00 PM
Place: Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Curator: Jędrzej Zakrzewski

• Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet
• Alexander Cabeza-Trigg
• Agnieszka Grodzińska
• Maria Oblicka

• Karolina Vyšata

• Julia Ciunowicz
• Michalina Sobierajska
• Jędrzej Sokołowski

The exhibition of Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet — who celebrated her hundredth birthday in January 2026 — presents a body of work developed over more than seventy years by one of the key representatives of the Polish school of tapestry. Her works, like those of other female artists associated with this important phenomenon of postwar Polish art, are characterised by an experimental approach to form and material and by a focus on the plasticity and texture of weave. A graduate of Eleonora Plutyńska’s studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, she made her textiles by hand, often using unusual materials: partially unscoured, hand-spun mountain sheep wool, hemp or sisal. Textiles that pushed the boundaries of the traditional medium brought international success to the Polish representation at the I Textile Biennale in Lausanne in 1962.

The weaving loom has been Wojtyna-Drouet’s basic working tool since she finished her studies in 1953. In her work the weaving process itself is of crucial importance, likened to meditation. The artist chooses natural, partially unscoured mountain sheep wool, which she dyes according to traditional recipes passed on to her by Wanda Szczepanowska. Her tapestries and kilims are created without prior technical design, intuitively and spontaneously.

The exhibition adopts a processual perspective in the study of craft (after Tim Ingold), which assumes that form emerges as material takes shape. This approach is close to Wojtyna-Drouet: weaving is not the execution of a predetermined plan but a way of life with craft — the repetition of actions such as stretching the warp, dyeing wool, daily weaving and taking finished tapestries off the loom.

The exhibition presents a selection of 20 works by the artist created between 1953 and 2018, supplemented by lesser-known tapestries from her private collection. Large-format textiles, such as 'Uliczka' (1962) made for the Biennale in Lausanne or 'Kwitnące wzgórza' (1978), created on private commission, are shown for the first time in over two decades. The juxtaposition of works reveals formal and stylistic changes in the artist’s output — from figuration, through abstract compositions, to lyrical works of later years. At Zachęta, alongside tapestries and kilims, objects documenting the workshop are also shown: dyeing recipes, textiles illustrating weaving techniques (e.g. jacquard, fabric printing) and a collection of the artist’s handmade clothing. References to a way of life with craft can also be found in works by contemporary artists inspired by Wojtyna-Drouet’s oeuvre — Agnieszka Grodzińska, Maria Oblicka and Alexander Cabeza-Trigg.

The exhibition is part of the current revival of weaving techniques and aims to make available to the next generation the technical knowledge honed over years. A book accompanying the exhibition, planned for publication during its run, is the result of an archival project carried out by the Zachęta team in 2025. The book is not a monograph or a typical album; the artist’s creative experience served as a starting point for analyses from different research perspectives: Sandra Imko (on the status of artistic textile in the light of Wojtyna-Drouet’s work), Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka (on colour in design) and Anna Wiszniewska (on the history of textile exhibitions in the Zachęta building). The publication will also include archival materials — from natural dye recipes to documentation of the artist’s private travels.

The exhibition constitutes an important point in Zachęta’s history, where presentations of artistic textiles have taken place since the early postwar years. As Anna Wiszniewska notes, the history of the presence of artistic textiles at exhibitions in the Zachęta building runs parallel to the history of postwar art in Poland — from a service role in the project of 'art for everyday life and for everyone' under the shadow of socialist realism, through the medium’s emancipation and spectacular flourishing, to crisis and a contemporary return in a new guise. The last exhibition showcasing the broad potential of the textile medium was 'Splendor tkaniny' from 2013.

Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet (b. 1926) — textile artist and painter, a representative of the first generation of the Polish school of tapestry. From 1946 to 1953 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (diploma in Eleonora Plutyńska’s studio). She participated in the I, IV and V International Textile Biennales in Lausanne; in 1975 she took part in the I International Textile Triennale in Łódź, and in 1978 in the International Quadriennale of Decorative Arts in Erfurt. Her works have been exhibited in Poland and abroad (including Oslo, Leipzig, Buenos Aires, Havana, Chicago, Cairo). She created over 350 textiles. Her tapestries are held, among others, in the collections of:

• National Museum in Warsaw
• Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź
• POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
• Musée Jean-Lurçat de la Tapisserie Contemporaine in Angers
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• and in private collections in Poland and abroad.

Institution funded by: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Zachęta is supported by: Society of Zachęta of Fine Arts
Zachęta patron: ORLEN
Technology partner: DEKOMA
Media patrons: Pismo, Nasze Miasto
Vernissage partner: Kombucha by Laurent