Saint-Mars (composition: blue, black, yellow, red, white)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop.
With its ribbon.
1963.
Quickly becoming an abstract painter, Mortensen settled in Paris in 1947, and soon exhibited, along 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 And, in 1952, with the help of François Tabard and Vasarely, the exhibition "12 unpublished tapestries" opened at the gallery, featuring, alongside Le Corbusier or Léger, works by Deyrolle, Taueber-Arp or Mortensen, who were thus the first abstract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 us not forget that we are 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 had returned to Denmark as early as 1964. The 14 tapestries of the artist that were woven reproduced his large geometric compositions, with light, vivid and contrasting colors, with large flat areas of color, rendered with great success by the weavers of the Tabard workshop.
“One of Mortensen’s most beautiful tapestries,” according to Valentine Fougère (Tapestries of Our Time, Paris, 1969), “Saint-Mars,” with its obscure title, is derived from a 1962 print. The style, very geometric and bordered with flat primary colors, is characteristic of Mortensen’s work in 1961-1962.
This model, held both at the Mobilier National (purchased from the Denise René gallery in 1963) and at the Cité de la Tapisserie in Aubusson, was woven in 2 formats: the dimensions of our example correspond to that of the Cité.
Provenance: Denise René collection
Bibliography:
Madeleine Jarry, Tapestry, 20th Century Art, Fribourg, 1974, ill. no. 145
; Exhibition Catalog, Aubusson, The Abstract Path, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1993, ill. p. 14 (in situ in the Denise René Gallery during an exhibition in 1964), and p. 32;
Proceedings of the symposium, Tapestry Yesterday and Today, Paris, 2011, ill. no. 6 p. 213;
Visitor's Guide, Nave of Tapestries, International Tapestry Center, 2016, Aubusson, ill. p. 84
