Of Gold and Shadow

 

 

 

Tapestry woven by the Cartron workshop.
With his label signed by the artist, No. 1/1.
Circa 1970.

 

 

 

Initially a sculptor, using a variety of materials (steel, concrete, ceramics, ...), Borderie discovered his passion for tapestry in the 1950s, having his first cartoon woven in 1957. Encouraged by Denise Majorel, he received the National Grand 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 created nearly 500 painted, abstract cartoons, with simple shapes, degraded in a reduced color range, with large-stitch weaves.

Here we find the same concerns around light (and shadow) as in 'the arms of light' (and as in Matégot). Borderie is then also woven by other workshops than Legoueix in Aubusson, Rado, Daquin and, more confidentially, Chartron in Angers (which notably wove Jorj Morin).

 

 

Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. André Borderie “for the man simply”, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat and Contemporary Tapestry Museum, 1998
Cat. Expo. André Borderie and Aubusson tapestry, Aubusson, Manufacture Saint-Jean, 2018