Jean-René SAUTOUR-GAILLARD

Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop.
1997.

A student of Wogensky at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, Sautour-Gaillard had his first tapestry cartoon woven in 1971 by the Legoueix workshop (a collaboration that has continued ever since), and he went on to create numerous monumental projects, the most spectacular of which is "Pour un certain idéal" (For a Certain Ideal), a series of 17 tapestries on the theme of Olympism (housed at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne). Initially close to lyrical abstraction, in the 1990s the artist created cartoons based on assemblages of decorative motifs, textures, and figures, seemingly superimposed and unified in the weaving.

The two vests in the "Archaeologies" exhibition held at the Inard gallery in 1997 testify to the desire of the "Aubusson industry," then in disarray, to diversify its productions: Sautour-Gaillard, a great collector of fabrics himself, shows the same inspiration as in his contemporary woven collages.

Bibliography:
D. Cavelier, Jean-René Sautour-Gaillard, la déchirure, Lelivredart, 2013, reproduced p.6 (worn by the artist), 296