Thread drawing, (untitled),

ca. 1968

In addition to scenic images that harmoniously merge human and animal, Luba Krejčí also created a series of individual women’s heads. Topped by windblown hair, the faces stare out at us with empty eyes and open mouths. Ending abruptly at the neck, they exhibit the concentrated facial expressions of passport photos, with a coarse grain due to the textile technique applied. Krejčí revived in her thread drawings the ancient bobbin lace technique. Without using a preliminary sketch or cardboard base, she first wove waxed linen thread into a dense facial surface and then crafted the texture of the hair using the bobbin lace method. The result is a stark contrast between the static, expressionless countenance and the animated head of hair. Though Krejčí lived during eventful times—like the suppression of the Prague Spring with the use of savage force—it is not known whether her works represent a political commentary. What we can say for certain, however, is that Luba Krejčí’s images attest to a great familiarity with textile techniques, which she learned in a three-year course in dressmaking in her Czech homeland in the 1940s, followed by studies in textile design at the schools of applied arts in Brno and Prague. From the mid-1950s onward, she was active in the Center for Folk Art in Czechoslovakia, advocating for the preservation and further development of traditional craft techniques. (Sabine Flaschberger)