Dentro il verziere. Solo exhibition by Graziella Guidotti

Graziella Guidotti, La dama del verziere, detail, 2000-2012, 24 brocade handwoven fabrics, mixed yarns.

We are thrilled to announce the final exhibition of the On Weaving series, opening next Thursday, November 21 at 6.30 p.m., with a solo show dedicated to Graziella Guidotti (Castell’Azzara, GR, 1936), a key character in the Italian hand-weaving scene.

The exhibition, curated by Alessandra Tempesti, focuses on a series of precious brocades hand-woven by Graziella Guidotti over a 10-year period that tell the story of the Castellana di Vergy, the subject of a 13th-century French chivalric poem that was later translated into Florentine rhymes in La Dama del verziere. This is the only figurative series in Graziella Guidotti's vast, predominantly abstract textile production in which the decorative motifs arise directly from the weave structures, often derived from a reinterpretation of the of the textile structures of Renaissance silks and popular fabrics defined as ‘paesani’ to which the weaver has dedicated countless studies and research, considering them an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
On display are a series of small studies, created with an original weaving technique pioneered and developed by Graziella Guidotti based on the paesani fabrics and progressing to industrial production on electronic looms. The weave has been copyrighted, testifying to her extraordinary inventive ability that throughout her life has led her to study and hybridise the ancient and traditional with the modern, manual weaving with design for industry.

The exhibition is meant to be a tribute to an exceptional artist-designer and craftswoman, to this day one of the greatest experts in manual weaving, who dedicated her entire life to the study of textile culture in Italy, to research and to teaching, passing on this knowledge to new generations.

With the support of Toscanaincontemporanea 2024

21st November h 18.30: exhibition opening
22 November 2024 - 16 February 2025:
Mon-Fri 10-18 / Sat-Sun by appointment