User:Art in Tapestry

Art in Tapestry: Overview:

Art in Tapestry was formed by Maria Simionescu and Beatriz Peraldi in El Paso Texas, and began operations in 1977.

Maria and Beatrice spent the next five years following the formation of Art in Tapestry, networking within the art community. The more exposure the Tapestries had at galleries throughout the world as well as expos, the more influential artists wanted their works reproduced in the medium.

In the early part of the 80's Beatrice was diagnosed with cancer and the sold her stock to Maria. Art in Tapestry had a cadre of about 25 artist and with that workload, active artist recruitment were put on the back burner.

Art in Tapestry: A Tapestry is Made:

While there have been tapestries produced throughout history, using a variety of textiles and a variety of methods; in the mid 20th century the medium had to some degree fallen out of popularity. Earlier tapestries were primarily hand knotted, or woven by loom (similar to many other textiles: i.e. rugs, curtains, flags etc.).

However in homes throughout the world by the time Art in Tapestry was formed, tufted carpets and rugs were becoming increasingly common due to their respective ease of production, as well as a lower production cost. In a Tufted carpet or rug, a fiber (typically some material of yarn (wool and acrylic were common)) is punched through a membrane, and pulled back through the original side before being sheered. Due to the simplicity of the process it is fairly simple to mechanize and largely remove the artisan or craftsmen from the process.

While tufting can potentially expedite the manufacturing process, Maria and Beatrice choose to produce their tapestries in this method because of the versatility that tufting provide. When a textile is tufted it can either be; hand punched or machine punched, likewise it can either be hand sheered or machine sheered. The tapestries produced by Art in Tapestry were both hand punched and hand sheered which allows a color pallet akin to that of a painters, but has the added advantage of customizable three dimensional depth to be sculpted into the work in accordance with the vision of the artist.

When the artist decided they wanted to either have an existing work of their choosing be reproduced as a tapestry, or to have an original tapestry produced by Art in Tapestry, they would be involved throughout the tapestries' production, all the way from having the tapestry produced to approving the final Artists proof and signing of the work.

Art in Tapestry: Feature Artists:

Anton Cetin

Jose Luis Cuevas

Salvador Dali

Manuel Felguerez

Mathias Goeritz

R.C. Gorman

Lila Hafner

Len Janklow

Peter Keefer

William Kurelek

Luis Lopez Loza

Carlos Merida

Nong

Emilio Ortiz

Nadine Prado

Ivan Rabuzin

Sabelis

Sebastian

David A. Siqueiros

Rufino Tamayo