The dazzled eye
Tapestry woven by the Clochard workshop.
With its ribbon signed by the artist, no. 1/6.
Circa 1980.
Trained as an engraver (Prix de Rome for intaglio engraving in 1942), Jean Louis Viard created his first tapestry cartoons in the mid-1950s.
Initially figurative (working with Picart Le Doux at that time), he then followed the natural path of many painter-cartoonists (the same path as Matégot, Tourlière, or Prassinos, etc.), evolving towards abstraction. He produced dozens of cartoons until the 2000s, alongside his work as a painter and engraver, but demonstrating a particular interest in materials and textures, like the proponents of the "New Tapestry" movement, of which Pierre Daquin, who wove his tapestry, was a major figure.
His themes, sometimes metaphysical (“Memoirs”, “Destinies”,…), cover a wide range, from the astronomical infinite (“solar darkness”) to the minuscule cellular (“Plant Mutation”): a profuse and varied body of work, regularly exhibited at the Demeure, in various salons or private exhibitions, and more significantly at the Comparaison salon where he was in charge of the Tapestries section.
