La terre de France ne ment pas (French soil doesn't lie)
Aubusson tapestry.
1943.
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François Faureau is a singular figure. Born in Aubusson, he studied at the ENAD, of which at the time the director was Marius Martin who was already promoting the use of thick yarn and counted colours that Lurçat would later adopt. Thus he was a representative of the peintre-cartonniers at the stand of the ENAD at the Exposition internationale des Arts décoratifs in 1925 with his tapestry “Solitude, verdure” or the screen “Canards”, which hesitate between neo-classicism and the influence of cubism. He later founded his own workshop, but his production remained somewhat confidential, and somewhat removed from the protagonists of the “Tapestry Renaissance”. Although the workshops in Aubusson continued their activity during the occupation (as did the Manufactures Nationales), the production of pieces directly influenced by the imposition of the values of Pétain’s government are rare, despite the fact that this typically traditional skill undoubtedly coincided with the values of what was known at the time as the National Revolution. The famous formula spoken by Maréchal Pétain on 25th June 1940 (although its author was Emmanuel Berl), which went on to become a leitmotiv in the official public discourse, exalting the countryside, society’s peasant roots and, rather more prosaically, agriculture, is illustrated here in a very literal fashion bringing together the various rural tasks, vegetation, architecture and animals... all harmoniously exposed under the protective watch of the Vichy regime. Provenance : Collection Régine Deforges Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Tapisseries 1925, Aubusson, Cité de la tapisserie, 2012
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Tapis de sol (Floor carpet)
Manessier was trained in the Bissière studio where he became familiar with decorative art (the sets for the 1937 Exhibition), and with applied arts particularly in the context of religious art (cartoons for stained glass, the design of liturgical ornamentation,...), and designed his first tapestry cartoon in 1947. Somewhat disappointed with the results, too well-defined and arid for his taste, he turned in the 1950’s to the Plasse le Caisne workshop. Exploiting a different technique which allowed for the contrast of stitches, materials, the use of relief, ... and a greater freedom for the weaver who thus engaged in a close collaboration with the cartoon designer, Plasse le Caisne went on to weave most of Manessier’s tapestries, some of them particularly large-scale (“Chant Grégorien” for the Maison de la Radio,...), some of them forming a cycle (the 12 “Cantiques sprituels de Saint Jean de la Croix),... Very much a one-off in Manessier’s work : a rug, but woven using the Aubusson weaving technique in the Goubely workshop (the only time they worked for the artist) ; it was a commission from Myriam Prévot, co-director of the Galerie de France, which was very active in the promotion of most of the non-figurative and lyrical abstract painters (organising 7 separate exhibitions devoted to Manessier), for her flat on the quai d’Anjou : underlying the close relationship between the artist and the gallery owner who represented him. Bibliography : Exhibition Catalogue Manessier, oeuvre tissé, Eglise du château de Felletin, 1993 (ill. p.39)Aubusson carpet/tapestry woven by the Goubely workshop. 1959.
