Trude Guermonprez

Trude Guermonprez, born Gertrud Emilie Jalowetz (1910 –1976), was a German]-born American textile artist, designer and educator, known for her tapestry landscapes.

Gertrud Emilie Jalowetz was born on 9 November 1910 in Danzig, Germany (modern Gdańsk, Poland).

Her parents were Austrian and were active in the arts.

Her mother was Johanna Jalowetz (née Groag), was a voice teacher and bookbinder and her father was Heinrich Jalowetz was a musicologist and conductor.

We can assume that Trude Guermonprez was inspired by there revolutionary artisical surroundings of here parents, while working at Het Paapje designing different textiles.

She learned weaving while living in Halle, Germany, where she attended Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design (School of Fine and Applied Arts in Halle-Saale).

Guermonprez studied textiles in Halle under Benita Otte.

By 1933, she had received a degree from the Textile Engineering School in Berlin and scholarship to further her studies in Sweden and Finland.

In 1933 she joined the handknitting tapestry and weaving enterprise Het Paapje in Voorschoten, the Netherlands.

Trude Guermonprez was working for five years and 7 months at Het Paapje, while she was living in Wassenaar.

These hangings embellish the entrance hall of the in 1933 newly built town hall of Enschede City, until now.

The second, the fourth, and the sixth hanging are weaved by Trude.

(Look at image A)

The sixth hanging is sturdy and subtle in detail.

The vertical dark centre and next to it the 2 narrow light grey strips are equipped with wide or narrow V signs.

Next to these the wide, sturdy red breadths are executed with thin, white horizontals.

Under this, marked with a black line, a horizontal breadth is repeated from above; with one white and 2 black V's, they strongly connect above and below.

The 4 horizontal Lowest strips (in variations of brown) are held together by 4 white verticals.

Trude exposes a rich variation of weaving techniques, forming basic figurative elements in a beautiful composition.

(Look at image B)

In the beginning of her work at Het Paapje, Trude had taken the opportunity to express her roots in a little knitted carped of 132X95X1,5 cm. In the lower part of the carped we walk through a foliage with a nice blue flower.

In the upper part we see a yellow house with windows and 'a cock on the roof.

This fairytale-like element she probably knew from the Czech Folklore.

Her parents visited Het Paapje in 1939.

Because they were Jewish they were on escape from National Socialism.

They settled in the United States to teach at Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina.

She married a Bauhaus trained photographer in 1939, Paul Guermonprez, and they lived together in the Netherlands.

Paul Guermonprez was working as a graphic designer and founded his own advertising company Co-op 2, prior to getting drafted for the Dutch army.

By 1940, Germany occupied the Netherlands.

Paul Guermonprez died in 1944 by Nazi execution, while fighting in the Dutch resistance.

Here after Trude Jalowetz consequently named herself Trude Guermonprez.

She went into hiding until the end of World War 2.

This was a very sorrowful time for here.

On the one hand, weaving the sixth hanging for the Enschede Townhall made Trude feel; 'She came at the right moment'.

On the other hand, Het Paapje was very happy with her designing textiles and her personality.

Trude lived together with a companion women weaver at an easy walking distance from Het Paapje, along the Papenlaan (The Papistlane) in a typical picturesque, Dutch landscape; with meadows, straight ditches, cows and farmhouses.

Fencing lessons for those who were interested, were organized in Het Paapje during the evening.

For a feast, a musician with a huge accordion came from Leiden-city to play for the whole ‘Het Paapje population’; including the neighbouring friends farmers.

She made six hangings (of approximate 1.80 m height) together with another companion weaver.

Her Bauhaus-influenced disciplined abstraction for hand woven textiles greatly contributed to the American craft and fiber art movements of the 1950s, 60s and even into the 70s, particularly during her tenure at the California College of Arts and Crafts.