Maurice André

Maurice André stayed in Aubusson throughout the war. Founder of the cooperative group "Tapestry of France" and member of the APCT (Association of Tapestry Painters and Cartoonists), he developed a personal aesthetic, far removed from Lurçat's, characterized by rigorous, cubist flat planes in a frequently minimalist chromatic range. He received ambitious public commissions, for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg ("Europe United in Work and Peace") and for the French Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair ("Modern Technology at the Service of Man"). Quite naturally (and like Wogensky, Prassinos, and others), he then moved towards abstraction, initially in a rather lyrical style, then in an increasingly geometric one, following a trajectory very similar to that of Matégot.

Maurice André's first tapestry cartoon, “Aubusson,” demonstrates both his adherence to Lurçat's technical principles (counted tones, flat areas of color, etc.) and what distinguishes him aesthetically (as well as Gromaire, who had treated the same subject a few years earlier). In fact, he was close to Dubreuil, his son-in-law; his stylistic emancipation would come soon after. The historical importance of this cartoon is undeniable: it is one of the few to depict the town (even more stylized than Gromaire's) at a time when the Renaissance of tapestry was still in its infancy.