Structure et lumière (structure and light)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop.
With signed label, n°1/6.
1964.
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Matégot, originally a decorator, then creator of artefacts and furniture (an activity he abandoned in 1959) met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, first of all figurative then rapidly of abstract design in the 1950’s. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in many international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an untiring advocate of the art of tapestry) fulfilled numerous public commissions, sometimes of monumental proportions (“Rouen” 85m2 for the Préfecture of the Seine Maritime département, and also tapestries for Orly Airport, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF…) and designed no fewer than 629 cartoons up until the 1970’s. In 1990 the Matégot foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, U.S.A. Matégot is an artist, like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, who turns wool textiles resolutely towards the abstract: at first lyrical, geometric in the 70’s, exploiting various technical aspects of the loom : colour graduations, shading, irregularities… « Structure et lumière » is a self-explanatory title : at this period Matégot’s tapestries are strongly contrasted, using effects of transparency as in stained glass windows (cf. “Piège de lumière”, “Shadows and light »,…). As for « structure » it refers both to his work as an interior designer whose function is to occupy space and organise it - even within the tapestry itself, despite its apparently haphazard lyricism. Bibliography : Madeleine Jarry, la Tapisserie art du XXe siècle, Office du Livre, 1974, ill. n°115 Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991, ill. p.44 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014, ill. p.335 pictured with the artist in front of his work at the 1990 exhibition.
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Univers végétal (Plant universe)
Aubusson tapestry woven for Jansen. 1944.Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. « Univers végétal » presents a paradox : there are more animals than plants pictured within. Thus already in 1944 Lurçat displays his penchant for framing the space within his compositions as with the cabinets and bestiaries : stuffed animals, as if in a cabinet of curiosities, are exhibited on shelves suspended on chains, hanging in starry skies in a poetic vision whose aim is to illustrate the unity of the natural world. This design was woven in various formats, as can be seen in the 1946 exhibition : a vertical rectangle, a square (2m x 2m, and also 3m x 3m) for Jansen, a Paris-based interior decorator, whose trade mark can be seen woven into this piece despite his not having a workshop in Aubusson (his commissions were woven by the Dumontet workshop). Bibliography : Cat. Expo. La tapisserie française, Musée d’art moderne, Paris, 1946, n°278-279 Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957, ill. n°31, 99 (details) Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, tapisseries de la fondation Rothmans, Musée de Metz, 1969, cat. n°6 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016 -
Figure de trois (Triplet)
Tapestry woven by the Saint-Cyr workshop. With signed label, n°1/6. Circa 1970. An unknown artist, whose inspiration finds its source in the instruments and theory of Music ; a geometric evocation of a keyboard and the stave serve as a framework for the cartoon.
