There are still many households in Latvia where a loom occupies the place of honour. It is quite possible that the weavers still use the 1913 book Ornaments by the Latvian designer Jūlijs Madernieks who stylized the traditional Latvian graphic ornaments.

The beginnings of the modern textile art can be traced back to the 1930s, but it is 1960 that was the watershed year: Rūdolfs Heimrāts showed a tapestry entitled To the Song Festival that combined the classic gobelin with national applied arts traditions. Soon thereafter he was entrusted with founding a Textile Arts Department at the Academy of Arts. This became the birthplace of the Latvian school in textile arts.

Aija Baumane, Edīte Pauls-Vīgnere, Dzintra Vilks, Georgs Barkāns, Egils Rozenbergs, Lija Rage, Lilita Postaža, Aina Muze produced tapestries that looked like paintings, works that were physically impressive and replete with metaphor. There were tapestries that were three-dimensional; other techniques like batik, painting on silk, applique, mosaic, collage, printing etc. were increasingly used by Pēteris Sidars, Inese Jakobi, Ieva Krūmiņa, Iveta Vecenāne, Arnis Pumpurs. Any self-respecting office or institution commissioned a tapestry – restaurants not excluding.