Floor mat
Aubusson rug/tapestry woven by the Goubely workshop.
1959.
Having been introduced to mural art during his training in Bissière's workshop (decorations for the 1937 Exposition), and later to applied arts, particularly those related to sacred art (stained-glass window cartoons, liturgical vestments, etc.), Manessier created his first cartoon in 1947. Disappointed by the initial results, which he found too stark and precise, he turned to the Plasse le Caisne workshop in the 1950s. Employing a different technique that allowed for contrasting stitches, plays of texture, variations in relief, and greater interpretive freedom for the weaver, in a rich dialogue with the cartoonist, Plasse le Caisne would subsequently weave most of Manessier's tapestries, some of them very large in scale ("Gregorian Chant" for the Maison de la Radio, etc.), others forming part of a cycle (the 12 "Spiritual Canticles of Saint John of the Cross," etc.).
A very singular work by Manessier: by its function, a rug, but woven in the Aubusson style in the Goubely workshop (their only collaboration); a unique piece, commissioned by Myriam Prévot, co-director of the Galerie de France, which at the time presented most of the painters of non-figuration and lyrical abstraction (and notably devoted 7 solo exhibitions to Manessier), for the decoration of her apartment on the Quai d'Anjou: a testimony therefore of the closeness of an artist with the gallery owner defending him.
Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. Manessier, woven work, Church of the castle of Felletin, 1993 (reproduced p.39)
