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Envie et Gourmandise (les pêchés capitaux) (Envy and Gluttony – the seven deadly sins)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Legoueix workshop. Complete with certificate of origin signed by the artist. 1956. After the traditional completion of some mural paintings in the 1930’s, he then arrived in Aubusson in 1936, became closely associated with Picart le Doux in 1947 and then joined the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie). From then on he devoted himself to tapestry with zeal and designed 167 cartoons, at first figurative following on from Picart le Doux and Saint-Saëns, then, influenced by the scientific themes that he dealt with, tending more towards abstraction. In 1981, two years before his death, he donated his studio to the Musée départemental de la tapisserie in Aubusson. « He considers… in this short but extremely witty series, the vices and his treatment reveals a malicious sense of humour returning in an original way to a theme much used during the middle ages.” (Exhibition catalogue “Hommage à Louis-Marie Jullien, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1983, p.4) Here the subject is a pretext for the representation of animals such as can be found in the work of his contemporaries, notably Picart le Doux with whom he was closely associated. According to the 1983 exhibition catalogue (which is considered to be the catalogue raisonné and in which this piece appears as number 53), only one tapestry was ever woven from this cartoon: it is thus unique. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Hommage à Louis-Marie Jullien, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1983 -
Papillons (Butterflies)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton frères workshop. With original certificate Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensured 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, drawn and numbered cartons. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapiisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his assumed role promotion the medium around the world (le Monde ?) His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonical (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. His journey to Brazil in 1954 was a decisive source of inspiration for Lurçat : the flora and fauna (particularly the butterflies, a recurrent theme) of the Amazon appear repeatedly : “What interests me with the butterfly, ... is the extraordinary inventiveness of the interlacing forms, the sparkling colours, the total freedom of their coloration...” (Claude Faux, Lurçat à haute voix, 1962, p. 151). Butterflies on a yellow background are a motif which recurs in several cartons : “Paon de nuit”, “Copacabana”, “Papillons Marcenac”... Bibliography : Exhibition Cat. Jean Lurçat, Tapisseries nouvelles, Maison de la pensée Française, 1956 Exhibition Cat.. Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie à Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992 Exhibition Cat. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du Monde, Angers, 2007 -
Remous (swell)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. Circa 1960. 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... Remous can be seen as representative of Matégot’s production around 1960 : lyrical, playing with transparency, using all the technical expertise of the weavers (colour shading and grading…) Its evocative title is a reminder of the artist’s interest for aquatic subjects (cf “Régates”) treated in an abstract-metaphorical way. Bibliography : Exhibition Cat. Les tapisseries de Mathieu Matégot, galerie La Demeure, 1962 (ill.) Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 -
Le soleil de Tijuana (the Tijuana sun)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. Signed certificate of origin. Circa 1960. 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... Matégot, recognised as an avant garde designer, an admired creator of furniture and decorative objects, also produced an essentially abstract body of tapestry work. However this is not an example of pure abstraction : but rather the evocation of a place (there are also “Mindanao”, “Santa Barbara”....) of its climate, using all the technical means offered by the medium : transparency, graduations, shading... Origin : contents of the Pinton workshop Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 -
Papillons de cocagne (ideal butterflies)
Aubusson tapestry, woven in the Picaud workshop. Complete with certificate of origin signed by the artist. Circa 1970. Michèle Van Hout le Beau designed numerous cartoons in the 1960’s and 70’s, working in collaboration with several workshops in Aubusson and receiving some state commissions (she participated along with Soulages, Lagrange, Alechinsky and others in the decoration of the transatlantic Boeing 707’s for Air France). Her style often involves the use of strident colours (very evocative of the 1970’s) from which emerge foliage, stylised human or animal figures. This cartoon, with its acidic colours is particularly characteristic of the artist’s style ; here we can also observe, on a theme abundantly developed by Lurçat, the different way in which the butterflies are evoked : the subject is here a pretext for highly coloured, geometrical evocations approaching abstraction. -
Saint François parlant aux animaux (St Francis talking to the animals)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Perathon workshop. Circa 1940. Jean Bazaine, like many of his contemporaries, was a prolific mural artist particularly for large scale edifices. Although he is above all recognised as a designer of stained glass windows and mosaics, he was also making tapestry cartoons as early as the 1930’s. These pieces formed part of the renewal of religious art of which Bazaine would be one of the principal protagonists, particularly after the war. Jean Bazaine, in association with l’abbé Morel (one of those foremost in promoting the introduction of abstract art into churches), was at the head of a painters’ workshop from 1936 to 1937 hence, undoubtedly, the preoccupations which he had already voiced in the domain of religious art. This particular cartoon, figurative in character, (Bazaine would abandon figurative representation during the war period) employing traditional iconography, is thus a modest example of the artist’s first steps in both mural and religious art. -
Le Chalut (the trawler)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. Complete with certificate of origin signed by the artist. 1952. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons...), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département ... In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his insipiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars...), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds...), man, literary quotation ... « One of the best-known of Picart le Doux’s tapestries : it is highly organised and the generous curves of the trawl net underline the choice of a large and simple graphic.” Is how Maurice Bruzeau describes this tapestry (n° 37 in his book) in the commentary he devotes to it. “The trawler” is typical of the marine themes which are omnipresent in this artist’s work, particularly at this period : “Dieu Marin (marine god), “La Sirène” (the mermaid), “le Dauphin” (the dolphin), “Fruits de mer” (shellfish), “Etoiles de mer” (starfish), in a range of muted colours revolving around kaki and silver grey. Here the treatment of the theme is more documentary (apart from the presence of a trident) : the subject is fishing, as it appears to Picart le Doux. Bibliography : Léon Moussinac, Jean Picart le Doux, Editions Cercle d’art,1964 (ill. Pl.10) Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966, ill. n°4 Exhibition catalogue, Hommage à Jean Picart le Doux, Centre artistique et littéraire de Rochechouart, 1968 (ill.) Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs du soleil, Editions Cercle d’art 1972 Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Musée de la Poste, 1980 (ill.) Exhibition Catalogue Picart le Doux, château d'Olonne, 1992 (ill.) -
Mosaïque (mosaic)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton frères workshop. Complete with certificate of origin signed by the artist. Circa 1960. 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 Tapiisserie) 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. According to tradtion, the salamander can resist fire : thus in Lurçat’s output it can be seen as an allegory of fire, in the “chant du monde” particularly (in l’eau et le feu”, the salamander is associated with fish). Here, it radiates, surrounded by flames, in a general environment where vegetation dominates except at this particular point where it appears to have been removed. Here therefore, the salamander joins, in his personal bestiary, other lizards which appear regularly in the tapestries using compartments/chequers (cf eg “le jardin du rêveur”, 1947, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine). Bibliography : Exhibition catalogueJean Lurçat, Tapisseries nouvelles, Maison de la pensée Française, 1956 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 Jean Lurçat, Donation Soùone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde angers 2007. -
Ombres et lumières (light and shadow)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. Complete with certificate of origin signed by the artist. Circa 1965. 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... This tapestry reveals Matégot’s preoccupation with the interplay of light and shadow which is often revealed in the titles of his works (cf. “Lumière d’été”, auctioned Millon-Robert 7.11.90, n° 31, reproduced on the cover of the catalogue, “Piège de lumière” preserved at the Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine and reproduced p 47 of the exhibition catalogue). Here the cartoon uses an abrupt contrast, like a ray of light, between two opaque (with faults however) and black (but shaded) blocks. In fact all of Matégot’s works reveal the interplay of transparency and superposition, as if light (albeit fatal to the colours he uses) was trying to force its way through the wool. Origin : contents of the Pinton workshop Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991
