Jagoda Buić (14 March 1930 – 17 October 2022) was a Croatian visual artist best known for her monumental

fiber art Fiber art (fibre art in British spelling) refers to fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labor on the part of the artist as ...

installations and tapestries, which won her critical acclaim in the latter half of the 20th century.

Early years

Born in the coastal city of

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

, Buić studied at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and Art History at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

before graduating in interior architecture and

scenography Scenography (inclusive of scenic design, lighting design, sound design, costume design) is a practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography is the combination of technological and material ...

, textiles and

costume design Costume design is the creation of clothing for the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a class, or a period. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the arti ...

at the

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

in 1953. After graduation she studied film set design at the

Cinecittà Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...

studio in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and the history of costume design at the International Centre for Arts and Costume housed at

Palazzo Grassi Palazzo Grassi (also known as the Palazzo Grassi-Stucky) is a building in the Venetian Classical style located on the Grand Canal of Venice (Italy), between the Palazzo Moro Lin and the campo San Samuele. History First owners During the 16th c ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Work

Buić worked on more than 120 projects as a costume and stage designer in various opera, ballet, theatre and film productions at various theatres in Vienna, Zagreb, Osijek, Dubrovnik and Split. In 1965, at the Lausanne Biennial of Textile Art, Buić impressed contemporary art critics with her first textile installation which was immediately bought by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. She continued to exhibit her monumental textile works at art shows and contemporary art museums around the world, becoming known for vast installations made out of textile cords, hemp and wool, and experiments with unusual surface textures and space. From the 1970s, Buić, together with Polish artist

Magdalena Abakanowicz Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska (20 June 1930 – 20 April 2017) was a Polish sculptor and fiber artist. She was known for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium and her outdoor installations. She is widely regarded as one of Poland ...

, was credited with pioneering innovative textile forms in contemporary arts. In the 1980s she started using metals in her sculptures and installations, and in the 2000s she turned to using collages of assorted materials, including paper, cardboard, wool, etc.

Death

Buić died on 17 October 2022 at her home in

, Italy, of an unspecified illness. She was 92.

Awards

Buić won numerous awards for her work, including the Grand Prize at the São Paulo Art Biennial, the Herder Prize (1976), and the

Vladimir Nazor Award The Vladimir Nazor Award ( hr, Nagrada Vladimir Nazor) is a Croatian prize for arts and culture established in 1959 and awarded every year by the Ministry of Culture. Named after the writer Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), the prize is awarded to C ...

for Life Achievement (2014).

References

External links

*
Jagoda Buić
at the Croatian Biographical Lexicon
Jagoda Buić
at the Croatian Encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Buic, Jagoda 1930 births 2022 deaths Artists from Split, Croatia University of Zagreb alumni Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni Herder Prize recipients Croatian women artists Croatian contemporary artists Yugoslav artists