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Two owls on blue background
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label, no.3/6. Circa 1970. -
Annick
Elie Grekoff, close to l'esthetic of Lurçat, will produce more than 300 cartoons. The theme of leafy suns is a classic of l’artist; perhaps the title alludes to a litière of l’Atelier de Tapisserie d’Angers, opened that same year 1968, and where Grekoff was the first painter-cartoonnier to be woven.Tapestry woven by l’ATA (Atelier de Tapisserie d'Angers) with its label signed. 1968. -
Calm water
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Hamot workshop. With its label, No.1/6. 1965. -
Orpheus and the Muses
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop for the Compagnie des Arts Français. 1942. -
Three white birds
Member of l’A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonners of Tapestry), Wogensky is one of many artists who will devote themselves to tapestry following Lurçat, in l’immediate post‑war period. D’abord influenced by him, l’oeuvre of Wogensky (159 cartoons d’après the 1989 exhibition catalogue) then evolves in the 1960s towards a lyrical abstraction not always fully embraced, from cosmic‑astronomical themes to decomposed bird forms in motion, towards cartoons that are more refined and less dense. S’il s’est always proclaimed a painter, the reflection of l’artist on tapestry is highly developed: “Creating an cartoon mural… c’est thinking in terms of a space that no longer belongs to us, by its dimensions, its scale, c’est also the demand for a broad gesture that transforms and accentuates our presence”. The bird theme, omnipresent, most often has an abstract, kinetic translation in Wogensky: lines, trajectories, forces, energies,… are the qualifiers used by critics and commentators. However, with his « Trois oiseaux blancs » (motif revisited with « Plein vol » in 1982), l’artist returns to a more figurative approach to the subject, where wings, beaks, tails are readable, albeit fleeting. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, the woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1989‑1990Tapestry of’Aubusson woven by the’workshop Legoueix. With its label signed, n°EA/1. 1968. -
The ball
tapestry of’Aubusson woven by the Micheline Henry workshop. With its label signed, n°1/2. Circa 1980. -
Rising Sun
Woven tapestry by the Saint-Cyr's workshop. With its label signed, No. I/VI. Circa 1970. -
The fruit picking
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Rivière des Borderies workshop. With its label of origin, and a later label signed by the Pinton workshop. 1946. -
Flight
Aubusson’s tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label. 1963. -
Wise gold
Marc Petit meets Jean Lurçat in 1954, stays in Aubusson in 1955, exhibits for the first time at La Demeure in 1956, becomes a member of l'A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonners of Tapestry) in 1958. From these brilliant beginnings, he produces hundreds of cartoons, in a very personal style, where waders cross tightrope walkers in dreamlike landscapes. Nocturnal raptors are a leitmotif (as also with Lurçat) of Petit since his beginnings. He associates them with another of his clichés, the treatment in echo/negative/symmetry, in the birds, the foliage, the backgrounds…Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label, No. EX-A. Circa 1970. -
On the other side
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its ribbon, No. 1/6. Circa 1970.Marc Petit meets Jean Lurçat in 1954, stays in Aubusson in 1955, exhibits for the first time at La Demeure in 1956, becomes a member of l'A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonners of Tapestry) in 1958. From these brilliant beginnings, he produces hundreds of cartoons, in a very personal style, where stilt‑walkers intersect tightrope walkers in dreamlike landscapes. Always economical in means, with broad flat areas and a narrowed chromatic range: « de l’autre côté » is the duplicate of another tapestry formerly in our possession « Contrejour », same composition, same dimensions, but with different colours. -
Tributaries
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Goubely workshop. With its signed ribbon. Circa 1955. -
Sun-Lyre
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Hamot workshop. With its signed label. 1957. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the Paquebot France or the Préfecture de la Creuse,.... While Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist.... Cartoon of a fine effect: the symmetry of the lyre (one of Picart le Doux's favorite instruments) is adorned with a Sun-face (very Louis XIV) - a cliché of all solar myths. This cartoon announces 'The Sun of Orpheus', which will adorn the bar of the 'France' liner. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film Publications of Art and History, 1966, ill. no. 9 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°82 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980, ill. -
Cap d'Antibes, mistral
The Four manufactory reproduces in tapestry, hand-woven, some of the great works of painting: thus Klee, Modigliani, Macke or, here, Monet have been transcribed into wool, reproducing the nuances of materials and touches of the artists.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With its ribbon, No. EA2/2. Based on a work by the artist from 1888, preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. -
Despite himself
Marc Petit meets Jean Lurçat in 1954, stays in Aubusson in 1955, exhibits for the first time at La Demeure in 1956, becomes a member of l'A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartoonniers de Tapisserie) in 1958. From these brilliant beginnings, he produces hundreds of cartoons, in a very personal style, where waders cross tightrope walkers in dreamlike landscapes. This large tapestry combines several motifs specific to Marc Petit, characteristic of his imagination: tightrope‑walker character, birds (discreet here), star, foliage, in an equivocal, poetic title, of which he is fond.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop for the Verrière gallery. With its ribbon, No. EA. Circa 1970. -
The wasp
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its signed label. Circa 1955. -
Nocturne
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its signed label, No. 4/6. 1952. Lurçat solicited Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, from 1940 onwards. And, during the war, he produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, combat, and resistance: "The Foolish Virgins", "Theseus and the Minotaur". At the end of the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, with whom he shared convictions (regarding the numbered cartoon and counted tones, and the specific writing required for tapestry) within the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists). His universe, where the human figure, stretched and elongated, occupies a considerable place (compared to the place it occupies among his colleagues Lurçat and Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: women, Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths, sublimated by the brilliance of colors and the simplification of the layout. He later evolved, in the 1960s, towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, where cosmic elements and forces dominate. The themes of music, theater, and specifically Comedia dell'Arte ("The Italian Comedy", cartoon from 1947) are omnipresent in Saint-Saëns' work: here, "nocturne" is a double reference, to music and to night: a serenade under the stars. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, La Demeure gallery, 1970 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1987 Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998 -
The Parrots
Aubusson tapestry woven by Pinton workshop for Moulin de Vauboyen. No. 4/8. Circa 1970. -
The green ray
Tapestry probably woven by the Brachet workshop. No. EA1. 1976. -
Flower of Night (fragment)
Kozo Inoué settled in Paris in 1960 and then mainly turned to serigraphy. He was woven by the Four factory from 1984. In his works, all of which are 'graces', petals, leaves or butterflies unfold, like in suspension, simple motifs (or sometimes repeated), on a contrasting background in gradations.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With its bolduc, n°EA1/2. Circa 1990. -
Tonga
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its signed ribbon. Circa 1960. -
Antiope
Member of l'A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonners of Tapestry), Wogensky is one of many artists who will devote themselves to tapestry following Lurçat, in l'immediate post‑war. D'abord influenced by him, l'oeuvre of Wogensky (159 cartoons d'après the exhibition catalogue of 1989) evolves thereafter in the 1960s towards a lyrical abstraction not always fully assumed, from cosmic‑astronomical themes to decomposed bird forms in motion, towards more refined and less dense cartoons. S'il s'est always proclaimed painter, the reflection of l'artist on tapestry is highly accomplished: "Creating an cartoon mural.... it is to think in terms of a space that no longer belongs to us, by its dimensions, its scale, it is also the demand of a broad gesture that transforms and accentuates our presence". More than ’ mythology, « Antiope » probably refers to astronomy: this asteroid then fits within Wogensky's dominant inspiration in the 1960s, and whose « Cosmos » (1968, University of Strasbourg), and « Galaxie » (1970, Senate, Luxembourg Palace) will be the culminating points. One observes that qu’ici, paradoxically, Wogensky tries to express the immensity of Space in a very small format. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, l'oeuvre woven, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1989Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its signed ribbon, no. 2/4. 1968. -
Wind Call
Tapestry woven by the Saint-Cyr workshop. With its signed ribbon, No. III/III. Circa 1970. Pierre Daquin is emblematic of those versatile artists who revolutionized tapestry in the second half of the 1960s. Both designer and executor, he has perfect technical mastery of the medium, acquired in the National Manufactures, then exploited in the Saint-Cyr workshop (which he founded in 1965, after leaving Beauvais), where he weaves, apart from his own works, tapestries based on Ubac, Feito, or Arthur-Bertrand,…. Pierre Daquin is especially one of the major protagonists, in France, of the "New Tapestry", whose emergence, from the first Lausanne Biennials, impresses on tapestry a questioning of its form (sometimes in 3 dimensions,…), its function (in its relationship to the wall and space, in particular), its technique, its texture, and its materials (wool and cotton can become subsidiary,…): his personal concerns around white, void, three-dimensionality, relief,… are expressed, for example, in "Mospalis" (Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry), exhibited at the 4th Lausanne Biennial, in 1969. "Wind Call" is a cartoon before the break and radicality: abstract, with large dots, with metal threads, but still presenting the appearance of a traditional tapestryand Lausanne Biennale, 1969. "Wind Call" is a cartoon from before the break and radicality: abstract, with large dots, with metal threads, but still presenting the appearance of a traditional tapestry. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Decorum, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2013 Collective, from tapestry to fiber art, the Lausanne Biennales 1962-1995, Skira/fondation Toms Pauli, 2017 -
Aerial Acrobatics
Aubusson tapestry woven by Pinton's workshop. With its signed label, No. 5/6. 1969. -
The roofs
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He first tackled technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he defined his system: large stitches, counted tones, numbered drawings. A gigantic production began then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by his desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal, cosmogonic symbolic iconography (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately removed from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and whose crowning point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Despite his brother André's profession, Lurçat's forays into architectural pattern weavings are few (we will note the oneiric "Palace of the Prince", but also "Chicago" or "Paris",...). "The Roofs" is distinguished by its title, generic, but which in fact illustrates, in an allusive way, the town of Aubusson, where the artist stayed during the war, as a response to Gromaire's "Aubusson", much more detailed. A few roofs, turrets, dormer windows and inhabited windows are enough to incarnate the capital of the Renaissance of Tapestry, flown over by 2 angels incarnating the Sun and the Moon, straight out of the imagination of a medieval image maker. Aubusson, the inspiration of medieval tapestry, the symbiosis of the town and nature (note the variety of foliage), all make this tapestry a manifesto. Bibliography: Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat.Expo. Jean Lurçat, Nice, Musée des Ponchettes, 1968 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976, reproduced Cat. Expo. Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Colloque Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie à Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Denise Majorel, une vie pour la tapisserie, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, la terre, le feu, l'eau, l'air, Perpignan, Musée d'art Hyacinthe Rigaud, 2024Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its signed border. Circa 1945. -
Harlequin
Tapestry woven by Bourlier's workshop. With its signed label, No. 1/4. 1971. Polymorphic artist, Bourlier initially devoted himself to tapestry in the 1970s, participating in various events (including the Menton Biennale): his subjects, machinist-constructivists ("the machine man"), abstracts ("construction"), refer to the heyday of the Bauhaus. -
Cock Fight
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He first tackled technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he defined his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawings. A gigantic production then began (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by his desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetation, animals (goats, cocks, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately removed from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war: freedom, resistance, brotherhood, truth...) and whose crowning point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Man is the central theme of Lurçat's first tapestries, he will become rarer afterwards; the cock, on the other hand, will remain omnipresent, but with a significant evolution of the motif. At the dawn of his cartoonist work, this association makes it possible to see what roles are then assigned to them: at this time (the beginnings of what will be called the "Tapestry Renaissance"), primitive man is an element of nature (dressed in leaves, he evolves in an autumnal environment with muted hues), who strives to domesticate cocks that are still very realistic, far from the symbolic dimension they will acquire later in Lurçat's imagination; a Lurçat here still of bucolic inspiration. A copy of "Cockfight" (and its counterpart "Cock Garden") are kept at the National Museum of Modern Art, in Paris, pieces acquired by the State from 1940. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the city of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, the combat and victory, centenary, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992, ill. p.36 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992, ill.6 p.69 (detail) Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat to the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. 1940. -
The seasons
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Bascoulergue workshop. With its signed label. Circa 1970. -
Bird on the Balustrade
Tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop. With its ribbon. 1954. -
Summer
Naive painter, Mady de la Giraudière has given few tapestry cartoons. 'Summer', however, with its field work, its loaf of bread, its wicker basket and its 'kil de rouge' has a particular flavor, in a very rare realistic vein in tapestry.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label, No. 2/6. Circa 1970. -
In praise of the table
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitches, counted tones, numbered drawings. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and of which the crowning point will be the " Chant du Monde " (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. The theme of the set table is a leitmotif with Lurçat, from the 1940s (cf. Les quatre coins, 1943, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry). These tables, sometimes very "horns of abundance", and often accompanied by musical instruments (mandolin in general) recall the still life paintings of the 17th century, a theme foreign to the tapestry of the time. Our model is distinguished by the amusing presence of the bust of a madman. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its ribbon. Circa 1950. -
The comedians
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its bolduc. 1959. Lurçat solicits Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, from 1940. And, during the war, he produces his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, combat, resistance: "the Foolish Virgins", "Theseus and the Minotaur". At the end of the war, he naturally joins Lurçat, with whom he shares convictions (on the numbered cartoon and counted tones, on the specific writing required by tapestry,...) within the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Artists). His universe, where the human figure, stretched, elongated, holds a considerable place (compared notably to the place it occupies with his colleagues Lurçat, or Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: woman, Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths,..., sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. He will then evolve, in the 60s, towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, where cosmic elements and forces dominate. The themes of music, theater, and more specifically of the Commedia dell'Arte (« the Italian Comedy », cartoon of 1947) are omnipresent in Saint-Saëns: he respects the figures, Lelio and Isabelle on the left, Pierrot, the Captain and Harlequin on the right, with very particular drawings, not devoid of humor, in their traditional costumes. The first copy will be in the collections of the Shah of Iran. Bibliography: Lawrence Jeppson, Murals of wool, Washington D.C., Jeppson galleries, 1960, ill. n°12 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, La Demeure gallery, 1970 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1987 Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998 -
The Falcon
Elie Maingonnat directed the National School of Decorative Arts in Aubusson from 1930 to 1958, where he succeeded Marius Martin (who already advocated for limiting colors and using hatching), and was his student. In addition to his responsibilities, Maingonnat himself devoted himself to creating cartoons: dense vegetal motifs animated by a few animals, a testimony to the Limousin flora and fauna, reviving the traditional theme of the verdures of the 17th-18th centuries. Our cartoon is typical of Maingonnat's work: local fauna and flora, as if in symbiosis, are illustrated in a reduced range of colors: our weaving, posthumous, has also evolved the original chromatic range, becoming more vivid. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Elie Maingonnat, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1986-1987Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. No. EA/2. 1947. -
Composition
Aubusson tapestry woven by Picaud workshop. No. 1/6. Circa 1970.Maurice André stayed in Aubusson throughout the war. Founder of the cooperative group 'Tapisserie de France', and member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), he developed a personal aesthetic, far from Lurçat, made of rigorous cubist flat areas, in a often purified chromatic range, and received ambitious public commissions, for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg ('A United Europe in Work and Peace'), or the French Pavilion for the 1958 Exhibition in Brussels ('Modern Technology in the Service of Man'). Quite naturally (and like Wogensky, Prassinos,…), he then evolved towards abstraction, first rather lyrical then in a style increasingly geometric, in a trajectory very close to that of Matégot. In André's ultimate style, geometry and its flat areas are tempered by hatching, stripes and other gradients. -
2 white, 1 black
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Goubely workshop. No.1/6. 1968. -
April shower
After the usual passage through wall decoration in the 1930s, Jullien came to Aubusson in 1936, befriended Picart le Doux in 1947 and became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartonists of Tapestry). He then devoted himself to tapestry with zeal and created 167 cartoons, initially figurative, following Picart le Doux and Saint-Saëns, then under the influence of the scientific themes addressed, he evolved towards abstraction. In 1981, two years before his death, he donated his workshop to the Departmental Museum of Tapestry in Aubusson. This is a transitional cartoon, for Jullien, between figuration and abstraction. Already featuring contrasts of tones, vertical lines, ... which are then found in 'Poetic Space of Industry', a set of cartoons on the theme of Technique and Industry that he developed from the end of 1959 (cf. 'Helium', for example.). Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Tribute to Louis-Marie Jullien, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1983Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop for the Coopérative Tapisseries de France. With its label signed by the artist, with the mention "ex.unique". 1959. -
Birds
The career of François Faureau is quite unique. Born in Aubusson, he attended the ENAD courses, then under the direction of Marius Martin who already promotes thick weaving and counted tones that Lurçat will take up again. It is in this way that he participated in the ENAD stand at the International Exposition of Decorative Arts in 1925 as a cartoonist with the tapestry "Solitude, verdure" or the screen "Canards", which oscillate between a classicizing style and the influence of Cubism. He will subsequently have his own workshop, but his work will remain confidential and far removed from the protagonists of the "Tapestry Renaissance". Upon his return to Aubusson in 1962, after a long absence, Faureau devotes all his energy to tapestry, as a cartoonist and weaver. His aesthetic is then less radical than in the 1920s, and the traditional themes: one can feel the influence of Lurçat, as well as Perrot.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Faureau workshop. Circa 1950. -
Flight
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately removed from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and of which the culminating point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. His trip to Brazil in 1954 will be a decisive source of inspiration for Lurçat: the Amazonian flora and fauna (notably butterflies, a recurring theme) then appear in a recurring way: "What interests me in the butterfly, ..., is the extraordinary invention that constitutes the interlacing of forms, the sparkling of colors, this gratuitous side of coloring..." (Claude Faux, Lurçat à haute voix, 1962, p.151). The differences between cartoons are sometimes marginal, for example between our "Vol" woven at Tabard's, and "Vera Cruz", a little larger, woven at Simone André's. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat.Expo. Jean Lurçat, Nice, Musée des Ponchettes, 1968 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Denise Majorel, a life for tapestry, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, Galerie des Gobelins, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, the earth, fire, water, air, Perpignan, Musée d'art Hyacinthe Rigaud, 2024Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its signed label. Circa 1955. -
The light bursts
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawings. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium across the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and of which the culminating point will be the "Chant du Monde" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. After his South American stays, teeming exoticism became a recurring theme in Lurçat: butterflies, fish, insects frolic in lush vegetation, speckled with yellow spots: "the light (that) bursts". Bibliography: Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat.Expo. Jean Lurçat, Nice, Musée des Ponchettes, 1968 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Colloque Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie à Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Cat. Expo. Drôles de trames, Medieval and contemporary tapestries, Beaune, 2002-2003 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, la terre, le feu, l'eau, l'air, Perpignan, Musée d'art Hyacinthe Rigaud, 2024Aubusson tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop. With its label. Circa 1955. -
The blue bird
Aubusson tapestry woven by the wall of the nomad. With its label, no. EA. -
Composition
Close to Matégot, Danielle Moser began, following him, a collaboration with the Portalegre Tapestry Manufacture from 1969. Her cartoons, whose titles often refer to her travels, are close to those of Matégot in the early 1970s, with stripped-down chromatic harmonies (browns, oranges, khakis…) but she never went as far as geometry.Tapestry woven by the Fino workshop in Portalegre. With its border from the Suzy Langlois gallery, no. 1/6. Circa 1980. -
Luc Estang
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production then begins (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately removed from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and whose culminating point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Lurçat's proximity to the literary world is evident, both as a book illustrator and in his tapestries, where verses by Eluard, Aragon,... are woven, in a communion of inspiration often evoked. These links sometimes date back to the Resistance and the maquis: this is probably the case with Luc Estang, who also participated in the design of verses appearing on "Le Vin" (Beaune, Burgundy Wine Museum), a tapestry contemporary with ours. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat.Expo. Jean Lurçat, Nice, Musée des Ponchettes, 1968 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Funny weaves, Medieval and contemporary tapestries, Beaune, 2002-2003 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Master of French Modernity, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, at the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, the earth, fire, water, air, Perpignan, Hyacinthe Rigaud Art Museum, 2024Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its label. Circa 1947. -
Composition
Aubusson tapestry. Circa 1950. Artist of Austrian origin established in France in 1927, Lilly Steiner is best known for her portraits of children. She provided a few rare cartoons for the Aubusson factories. -
Concerto
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its signed label. 1957. -
Summer day
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four manufactory for publisher Jean Laurent. With its ribbon, No. EA. 1989.Edmond Dubrunfaut can be considered the great renovator of Belgian tapestry in the 20th century. He founded a weaving workshop in Tournai from 1942, then created in 1947 the Tournai Tapestry Renovation Centre . He will provide for various Belgian workshops (Chaudoir, de Wit,...) numerous cartoons intended in particular to adorn Belgian embassies around the World. Moreover, Dubrunfaut, from 1947 to 1978, teaches monumental art at the Academy of Fine Arts of Mons, then, in 1979, participated in the creation of the Foundation for tapestry, textile arts and mural arts of Tournai, a veritable conservatory of tapestry in Wallonia. His style, figurative, often using strong color contrasts, is highly inspired by animals and nature (like Perrot, for example, the artist has a strong tropism for ornithology). In this regard, this cartoon, with its very horizontal format, at bird height, but represented here in a very realistic way, is characteristic of this vein. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Dubrunfaut and the renaissance of tapestry, paintings, drawings, paintings, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mons, 1982-1983. -
Homage to Vivaldi
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its signed label. 1963. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' ocean liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons from him, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France ocean liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are too, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. The theme of the seasons is a commonplace in the history of tapestry that the cartoonists of the 20th century have revived, with Lurçat at the forefront (cf. his Seasons tapestry commissioned by the State from 1939). Here, Seasons, Zodiac, Music (the title only) coexist: the work is a vast synthesis of different sources of inspiration for the artist. Chromatic range and specific attributes (iconography is traditional) allow the annual cycle to be followed. The seasons will also be woven 2 by 2, horizontally, in a smaller format (3 m²), and without reference to Vivaldi. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film Publications of Art and History, 1966, n°19 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'Art, 1972, n°139 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976, reproduced Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Post Museum, 1980, reproduced Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Saint John d'Orbestier Abbey, 1992, reproduced -
Face
Chazaud, a Creuse native, expressed in tapestries all his empathy for the Limousin nature that he, like Gaston Thiéry (and Maingonnat before them), abundantly represented. Woman, however, is another theme of inspiration for Chazaud; with his women-flowers, his women-leaves, he reintroduces faces and profiles into tapestry.Tapestry probably woven in the Picaud workshop in Aubusson. Circa 1980. -
The blue foliage
Tapestry woven by the Baudonnet workshop. With its signed ribbon. 1965. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons from him, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are too, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. 'Rideau de feuilles' from 1962, larger, inspired our cartoon; Bruzeau, concerning it, speaks of a 'rigid, austere, symmetrical style', with a 'Cistercian accent'. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film Publications of Art and History, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, n°148 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Post Museum, 1980 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Saint John d'Orbestier Abbey, 1992 -
Rural Garden
Painter-cartoonist, master weaver, director of the Hamot manufactory in Aubusson, who notably wove Sheila Hicks: the variety of Hecquet's talents is undeniable. His work as a painter-cartoonist, begun at the end of the 60s, remains unknown, like that of many of his peers of the same generation.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Hamot workshop. With a signed label by the artist, n°3/6. 1980. -
Sun Thief
First a sculptor, using the most diverse materials (steel, concrete, ceramics, ...), Borderie discovered a passion for tapestry in the 50s, having his first cartoon woven in 1957. Encouraged by Denise Majorel, he received the Grand National Prize for Tapestry in 1962. In 1974, he was appointed director of the National School of Decorative Arts in Aubusson, from which he resigned very quickly. He produced nearly 500 painted, abstract cartoons, with simple shapes, degraded in a reduced color range, with coarse stitching. Dynamic abstraction, chromatic range between orange and brown, same concerns around light (and shadow) as in 'les armes de la lumière' (and as in Matégot): a classic cartoon by André Borderie. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. André Borderie 'pour l'homme simplement', Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1998 Cat. Expo. André Borderie et la tapisserie d'Aubusson, Aubusson, Manufacture Saint-Jean, 2018Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist, no. 5/6. Circa 1970. -
Siena Sky
Fumeron created his first cartoons (he would go on to create more than 500) from the 1940s onwards, collaborating with the Pinton workshops, then receiving numerous commissions from the State, before participating in the decoration of the liner 'France'. Initially figurative and influenced by Lurçat, he evolved towards abstraction, before returning to a colourful and realistic figuration from the 1980s onwards. This cartoon plays on a play on words: 'earth' becomes 'sky of Siena' to allow the artist, on a gradated ochre background ('Siena earth'), to produce his birds and his sun-circle, in his characteristic decorative vein.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. No. 4/6. Circa 1960. -
Orpheus' Procession
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. 1961. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons from him, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are too, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. 'The Bestiary or the Procession of Orpheus' is a collection of poems by Apollinaire, which Picart le Doux will illustrate with lithographs in 1962 (after Raoul Dufy, in the original edition). He simultaneously conceives a tapestry cartoon, in the form of a checkerboard dear to Lurçat, where, in the squares, appear crayfish, goat or lion,…., in different aspects, varied, of the animal kingdom. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmated Art and History Publications, 1966, n°13 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Sun Walls, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, n°108 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Post Museum, 1980 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Saint John d'Orbestier Abbey, 1992 -
The lyre with butterflies
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its signed ribbon. Circa 1963. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' ocean liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France ocean liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. 'Natural' musical instruments (made from blooming tree branches) are recurrent in Picart le Doux's work from 1953 onwards (cf. 'the harp of the forests'); 'the butterfly harp', vertical and with a red background, revisits this theme in 1963. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film Publications of Art and History, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Post Museum, 1980 -
Children of the sun
Toffoli devoted himself extensively to tapestry with the Robert Four manufacture, from 1976, producing hundreds of cartoons. We find the post-cubist transparencies characteristic of the painter, as well as his subjects. Indeed, Toffoli's tapestry does not differ from his painting: painter-traveler, he illustrates in our cartoon scenes observed during stays in South America.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With its ribbon, No. EA2. Circa 1980. -
The Musicians 2 (detail)
If he is best known as one of the main representatives, with radical theoretical conceptions, of the modern movement in architecture, Le Corbusier also practiced (like Picasso for example) almost all the plastic and decorative arts. Thus, he was interested in tapestry, particularly in view of his architectural theories. He envisages tapestry as "the Mural of modern times", hence a neologism of his creation, "Muralnomad": tapestry becomes the woolen wall that his contemporaries carry with them as they move, and constitutes, not just a simple decorative element, but participates in the spatial arrangement of interiors, while contributing to their visual (and acoustic) harmonies. These theoretical reflections are materialized by the design, notably with the collaboration of Pierre Baudouin (who, in a role of technical director, serves as an interface with the weavers), of about thirty cartoons, from 1948 until his death (after a first cartoon in 1936, for Marie Cuttoli): if they take up certain motifs from his paintings (feminine figures, objects from Purism, mythological themes,…), these cartoons are distinct and specifically designed for tapestry: sharpness of line, black, flat areas of pure color, …. "The Musicians" is a cartoon from 1953, of large dimensions, woven in 2 distinct versions. Our tapestry takes up a detail from "The Musicians" 2nd versionand version, and testifies to the architect's desire, in 1964, to collaborate with the Fino workshop in Portalegre, Portugal (where Lurçat, Matégot, Julio Pomar… were also woven); this was ultimately their only collaboration, as Le Corbusier passed away in 1965. The chosen detail emphasizes the faces and hands (a recurring motif, which also gives its title to an cartoon from 1951), in a sort of imaginary dialogue between 2 facing characters. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Les Tapisseries de le Corbusier, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1975 Cat. Expo. Le Corbusier œuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1987 Cat. Expo. Tapisseries du Portugal, Bordeaux, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1994, reproduced p.39Tapestry woven by the Fino workshop in Portalegre. With its ribbon. 1953-1964. -
The 12 months
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitches, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role of tireless propagator of the medium across the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements…), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras…), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth…) and of which the crowning point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. "It is a very original version that Lurçat gives, of the theme of the months illustrated by tapestry for many centuries. Each of the months is symbolized by a bubble from which are born elements of vegetation or sunbeams. Conceived in the same spirit as the "De Natura solari rerum", this piece prefigures "Es la verdad", in which we find, a little in the manner of a border, placed in frieze, the twelve months of the year" (Martine Mathias in Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, le combat et la victoire, centenary, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1992, p.43) Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, le combat et la victoire, centenary, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1992, ill. p.43 Symposium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven by the Goubely workshop. Circa 1940. -
The trident of Neptune
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. 1946. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' ocean liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France ocean liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. Our cartoon, one of the artist's first, testifies to his allegorical and mythological references (cf. 'the treasure of Amphitrite' from 1949) to depict the Sea. A nearby tapestry, 'the algae', is more literal. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmated Art and History Publications, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, no. 6 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Post Museum, 1980 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Saint John d'Orbestier Abbey, 1992 -
Henri, detail of "cartoon 28"
In the 80s, the Aubusson tapestry was losing momentum. The public authorities then developed a plan to revive the Tapestry, of which Daniel Riberzani was one of the beneficiaries, being the first scholarship holder of the National Center for Plastic Arts for tapestry: in Aubusson, at the ENAD, he discovered the medium, adopted, at the beginning, the numbered cartoon, forged links in the workshops...; he then received public commissions, for the Gobelins, for the Carpeaux space in Courbevoie ("Music and Dance", a 160 m2 tapestry!),... Thematic series, in line with his pictorial work, followed one another: "landscape-events", "intimate paintings", "writings", "painted cartoons", .... The latter, glued and painted papers in 1993-1994, were designed for a possible textile translation (into tapestries, into carpets, as the case may be); "Cartoon 28", from 1993, consists of colored pinned words, serving as a border to a central neutral gray background and, if there was no "Tapis or Tapisserie 28", the artist had details woven, where "Henri" rubs shoulders, fragmentary, "eruption" and "sulfur": a tapestry of the margins. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. History of a tapestry or the meeting of the cannibal and the carnivores, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1984 Cat. Expo. Tapestries - painted Cartoons, Riberzani with Bezard, Brandon, Four, Gachon, Scioria, Avallon, Collegiate Saint-Lazare, 1995 Gérard Denizeau, Riberzani intimate paintings 1989-1999, Inard Editions, 1999, repro. no. 3, p.159 Daniel Riberzani Works, 2014Tapestry woven in Aubusson by the Legoueix workshop. With its certificate signed by the artist, no. 1/6. 1993-1996. -
Linda
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With its label, No. EA2. Circa 1980.Toffoli devoted himself extensively to tapestry with the Robert Four manufacture, from 1976, producing hundreds of cartoons. We find the post-cubist transparencies characteristic of the painter, as well as his subjects. Indeed, Toffoli's tapestry does not differ from his painting: the theme of maternity, exotic or not, remains a Toffolian leitmotif, whatever the technique. The tapestry is reproduced in the 'Aubusson Tapestry' binder published by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Guéret in the early 80s to illustrate the know-how of the Aubusson workshops. -
Merchants
Toffoli devoted himself extensively to tapestry with the Robert Four manufacture, from 1976, producing hundreds of cartoons. We find the post-cubist transparencies characteristic of the painter, as well as his subjects. Indeed, Toffoli's tapestry does not differ from his painting: painter-traveler, he illustrates in our cartoon scenes observed during stays in South America.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With its signed label, No. EA2/2. Circa 1980. -
The 6 words of the secret
In 1987, Texier received the commission for the 'Droits de l'Homme' tapestry for the bicentennial of the Revolution. The choice was unexpected, the artist, still young, had never before provided tapisserie cartoons. It made it possible to federate the Aubusson workshops still in activity, the 7 tapestries of the hanging totaling more than 130 m² woven with literal quotations (the tables of the declaration are reproduced identically to the engraving of the revolutionary era), oscillating objects, signs, texts…. Subsequently, Texier continued to provide cartoons, both for the National Manufactures (a series of 3 tapestries, a carpet) and for Aubusson. Our cartoon reprises the plastic signs, the sparse texts, the traces specific to the graphic and plastic universe of the artist, which constitute, to quote him, 'maps where [he] introduces piloting elements', so that the eponymous 'secret' is revealed to us. Bibliography: La Suite des Droits de l'Homme, Niort, 1989Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its signed ribbon, No. 1/1. 2001. -
The lion
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label signed by the artist's widow, No. 2/6. Circa 1980. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons, etc.), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists) and soon became a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. While Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. 'The Lion' reprises, in a small format, one of the figures, like a heraldic device, from 'The Procession of Orpheus' of 1961. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmated Art and History Publications, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Musée de la Poste, 1980 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Abbaye Saint Jean d'Orbestier, 1992 -
Midday Birds
Wogensky met Lurçat in 1939, but he only worked with him after the war, creating his first cartoon in 1945 (which was already titled "the birds"), and soon adhering to the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Painters). Professor of mural art at the National School of Applied Arts in Paris, Wogensky will produce 159 cartoons until the 80s, most of which were woven by Legoueix. "Wool has warm blood like man. It gives us confidence and reassures us. A wool wall is a more human, more living wall" (words collected by Robert Guinot, "Tapestry of Aubusson and Felletin", Lucien Souny, 2009). It is this credo that will inspire Wogensky's creation, in lyrical flights (in the literal sense since the bird, often stylized, is one of his favorite subjects) (some cartoons, particularly from the late 1970s, are resolutely abstract), in his "Natural History" cartoons (title of one of his tapestries, in 1961), or "cosmic" ones, with subjects of constellations or natural elements. "I have always enjoyed working on large formats" he will confide again to Robert Guinot. If our cartoon appears modest relative to some official commissions by Wogensky (University of Strasbourg, Senate Conference Room, ...), its subject allows a spatial dilation, a surge of these elliptical bird motifs, enlivened by the chromatic energy of the bright red flat backgrounds. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. 25 years of French tapestry 1944, Paris, Gobelins manufactory, 1969, n°33 Cat. Expo. Tapestry and Space, Châteauroux, Cordeliers Convent, 1978, n°21 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, the woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989, ill. p.34 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1989, ill. p.20Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its signed ribbon, No. EA. 1969. -
Butterfly bouquet
Tapestry woven in Aubusson by the Legoueix workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 4/6. Circa 1980.From illustration to tapestry, there is only one (big) step to take, let us remember that Dom Robert was an illuminator! It was precisely he, as well as Madeleine David, one of the co-directors of the La Demeure gallery, with whom she was close, who encouraged Jacqueline Duhême to focus on the medium: preceded by her reputation as an "imagier" (see bibliography), illustrating Prévert, Eluard or Druon, she devoted herself to tapestry from 1967 (she then followed the courses of Tourlière at the ENAD in Aubusson, and became a follower of the numbered cartoon) to 1981, La Demeure even dedicating a monographic exhibition to her in 1976. Her universe, coming from medieval mille-fleurs, is not without recalling Dom Robert, but a Dom Robert under amphetamines, where Nature is lush, exotic, exuberant (see "Safari", "the Bird of Paradise"). On a smaller scale, more polished too, our cartoon testifies to the colorful vitality of Duhême's inspiration. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Jacqueline Duhême l'imagière, Forney Library, 2019 -
Instruments of lunar music
Painter and engraver, Lucien Coutaud also worked for the theater with Dullin, Barrault: he then created numerous sets and costumes. But it was the meeting with Marie Cuttoli in 1933 that led him to tapestry: she commissioned him mainly to create cartoons for seats. Most of the subsequent tapestries were woven at Pinton for the Compagnie des Arts Français, which aims to integrate tapestry into interior design. The artist's last 3 tapestries in 1960 testify to his fame since "Exotic Gardens" adorn the First Class lounge of the "France". The qualities of a scenographer influenced by surrealism are reflected in Coutaud's woven work: his universe is figurative, but stylized (the shapes are sharp, hatched), resolutely oneiric, with unusual borders very often. The cartoon "lunar musical instruments" (Coutaud drew his own gouache cartoons, without resorting to numbered cartoons) dates from 1950: it is one of the rare tapestries by the artist (along with "marine harp" and "spring violin", other testimonies of the taste for these musical still lifes by the artist) where the human figure is rare. The center of the composition (of the scene) is occupied by the instruments, while 2 heads (blowers, musicians in the pit) adorn the lower corners, all in an austere, nocturnal landscape (lunar, precisely), illustration of the oneiric worlds dear to the artist. The Gothenburg City Theater retains a copy of this tapestry. Bibliography: J. Cassou, M. Damain, R. Moutard-Uldry, French tapestry and cartoonists, Tel, 1957, ill. p.86 Cat. Exp. Lucien Coutaud, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1988-1989, illustrated p.42-43 Cat. Expo. Theater in tapestry, Cavaillès, Lurçat, Matisse, Sorèze, Abbaye-école Musée dom Robert, 2017, ill. n°8Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. 1950. -
The conscript of the 100 villages
Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that has earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium across the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and of which the crowning achievement will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Emblematic and synthetic work of Lurçat's inspiration: war tapestry (if it dates from 1947, it constitutes a form of symbolic monument to the dead, on the scale of France, itself illustrated, and adorned with a tricolored leaf), tapestry-poetry (a poem of Resistance in addition), tapestry with wardrobe (a leitmotif). 5 copies were woven, 3 of which are in public collections, in Aubusson, Quebec and Moscow. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the city of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, the combat and victory, centenary, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992, ill. p.57 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 R. Guinot, tapestry, Aubusson and Felletin, Dessagne editions, 1992, ill.p.20-21 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 R. Guinot, Aubusson and Felletin tapestry, Lucien Souny, 2009, ill. p.92 G. Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013, ill. fig.114 p.111 M. Mathias, Lurçat-Aragon, shared poetry, Memoirs of the Society of Natural, Historical and Archaeological Sciences of the Creuse, volume 60, 2014-2015, p.439-444 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat at the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016, ill. fig.6 p.172Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. 1947. -
Fourth dawn
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its signed ribbon, no. 2/4. Circa 1970.Marc Petit met Jean Lurçat in 1954, stays in Aubusson in 1955, exhibits for the first time at La Demeure in 1956, becomes a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists) in 1958. From these dazzling beginnings, he produces hundreds of cartoons, in a very personal style, where waders cross tightrope walkers in oneiric landscapes. Economy of means always, with large flat areas and a tight chromatic range, to give a singular dawn, a theme the artist is fond of (cf. "the step of the dawn", but also "Aurora", "the night fades"…. As for the flock of passing birds, it is another leitmotif, which we see in "short dawn" for example. -
Let them live
Having become a painter-cartoonist late in life, Henri Ilhe nevertheless designed, from 1964, a considerable woven work (more than 120 cartoons, all woven at Tabard) in a pleasant style, featuring birds or butterflies frolicking in shrubs with knotty branches. 'Let them live' is, in this regard, characteristic of Ilhe's bucolic inspiration.Tapestry woven in Aubusson by the Tabard workshop. With its signed label by the artist, no. 6/8. Circa 1970. -
The starry seashell
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist. 1959. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons, etc.), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists) and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. Our tapestry takes up the left part of a cartoon of the same title dated 1959. If marine evocations appear from the beginning of Picart le Doux's work in tapestry, he soon evolved towards less allegorical, more realistic representations. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film Publications of Art and History, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, n°91 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978, n°17 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Post Museum, 1980 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Saint John d'Orbestier Abbey, 1992, reproduced
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