Tilleke schwarz biography

Textile artist Tilleke Schwarz was.
I live with husband and cat near Delft, The Netherlands.
Tilleke Schwarz makes fine hand embroidered work which contains images, texts, and traditional items.

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STITCHED STORIES: TILLEKE SCHWARZ

Image: New Potatoes, detail (2011). 68 x 70cm. All works are hand embroidered on fine linen. All images courtesy Tilleke Schwarz.

Stitched Stories is a solo show of recent work of textile artist Tilleke Schwarz who is internationally known for her fine embroidery on linen. Read on to find out more about the exhibition and Tilleke's work from the artist herself.

I was born in 1946 and live near Delft with my husband and a beautiful British Shorthair male cat. I learned embroidery from my mother and I was also trained in painting and drawing at the Art Academy (the AKI in Enschede and the Free Academy in The Hague).

Image: All Lives Matter, detail (2021).

I collect images and texts that surprise, surprise or move me and use them later in my work. This result in a subtle comment on our modern society . Everything can serve as inspiration: the newspaper, the internet or even shopping notes. Unlike most, I don't plan my work in advance. As I go along I add pictures and texts. Common elements include cats, flowers, traditional sampler moti

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Tilleke Schwarz: Art is in my genes

Textile artist Tilleke Schwarz was born in 1946 in the Netherlands and developed her craft at the Academy for Arts and Industry, Enschede and the Free Academy for Modern Art, The Hague. Until 2004, her career as an artist was combined with working for the Dutch National Government.

She is a member of several respected textile groups including the Schilderkundig Genootschap Pulchri Studio, the Rijswijkse kunstenaarsvereniging Arti Shock, the European Textile Network, Surface Design Association and the 62 group of professional textile artists.

Her work combines the use of mixed media with a clear focus on embroidery on linen, as well as drawings and paintings. She sites her Jewish heritage as one of her major influences, which is one of the areas she explores in this fascinating interview.

Website: tillekeschwarz.com

Development

TextileArtist.org:What initially captured your imagination about textile art?
Tilleke Schwarz:Textiles: Like the feel and looks. Art: It is inherited and in my genes.

What or who were your early i

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Artist: Tilleke Schwarz of Pijnacker, The Netherlands

Interview 89

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Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.

Biography

Tilleke Schwarz was born in 1946 in a small town in the countryside in The Netherlands. After her secondary school she went for a year to California as an exchange student. Back home she decided to follow her passion and to study at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts Enschede and later for one day a week at the Free Academy of Modern Art in The Hague. For many years now she has lived with her husband and a lovely Norwegian Forest cat near Delft.

For many years (till autumn 2004) she combined her art activities with a professional career for the Dutch national government (as a policy developer). She started her art career around 1990. Since then her activities have included exhibiting her work (all-over the world), lecturing and tutoring, writing for international textile magazines, organising exhibitions (for instance Soft Ware 2008 in The Hague) and advising about buying art. T