Saint-Mars (composition blue black yellow red white)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop.
With its label.
1963.
Very quickly an abstract painter, Mortensen settled in Paris in 1947, and soon exhibited, with other proponents of geometric abstraction, at the Denise René gallery. And, in 1952, with the help of François Tabard and Vasarely, the exhibition "12 unpublished tapestries" opened at the gallery, featuring, alongside Le Corbusier or Léger, works by Deyrolle, Taueber-Arp or Mortensen, who were thus the first abstract painters to be woven: a new mode of expression was thus born (let's not forget that we were then in the outrageous domination of the "Lurçat style"), which would later be claimed by Gilioli, Matégot or Tourlière. Mortensen's participation in the "René-Tabard tapestries" lasted until 1968, although he returned to Denmark as early as 1964. The 14 tapestries of the artist that will be woven take up his large geometric compositions, with clear, bright and contrasting colors, with large colored flat areas, rendered with success by the weavers of the Tabard workshop.
» One of the most beautiful » tapestries by Mortensen, according to Valentine Fougère (Tapisseries de notre temps, Paris, 1969), » Saint-Mars », with its obscure title, is derived from a print from 1962. The style, very geometric, and outlined with borders, in primary colors in flat tint, is characteristic of Mortensen's work in 1961-1962.
This model, preserved both at the Mobilier National (a purchase from the Denise René gallery from 1963) and at the Cité de la Tapisserie d'Aubusson, was woven in 2 formats: the dimensions of our copy correspond to that of the Cité.
Provenance: Denise René collection
Bibliography:
Madeleine Jarry, Tapestry, 20th century art, Fribourg, 1974, ill. no. 145
Cat. Expo. Aubusson, the abstract path, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1993, ill. p. 14 (in situ in the Denise René gallery during an exhibition in 1964), and p. 32
Proceedings of the conference, tapestry yesterday and today, Paris, 2011, ill. no. 6 p. 213
Visitor's guide, nave of the hangings, International City of Tapestry, 2016, Aubusson, ill. p. 84
