Robert WOGENSKY

Member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Artists), Wogensky is one of many artists who devoted themselves to tapestry following Lurçat, in the immediate post-war period. Initially influenced by him, Wogensky's work (159 cartoons according to the 1989 exhibition catalog) later evolved in the 1960s towards a lyrical abstraction not always fully assumed, from cosmic-astronomical themes to decomposed and moving bird forms, towards more refined and less dense cartoons. Although he always proclaimed himself a painter, the artist's reflection on tapestry is very thorough: "Creating a wall cartoon... is thinking in terms of a space that no longer belongs to us, by its dimensions, its scale, it is also the requirement of a broad gesture that transforms and accentuates our presence".

Birds emerge as a theme in Wogensky’s work at the end of the 1960’s. In reality, if the titles of his works refer to them, their representation remains allusive, closer to images of flight frozen in time than to ornithological treatises : it is movement in space that is important, hence the titles ‘vol ...’[flight]. it is the movement in space that is important, hence the titles ‘flight ...’. At this time, Wogensky was interested in the material effects obtained by weavers through the use of different stitch sizes; The ‘grand vol bleu’, the high point of this thematic and formal orientation, is presented in majesty in the catalogue of the 1973 exhibition at La Demeure gallery.

Bibliography:
Exhibition catalog, Robert Wogensky, 20 tapisseries récentes, La Demeure Gallery, 1973, ill. no. 1 (and detail on the front and back covers)
Exhibition catalog, Robert Wogensky, Oeuvre tissé, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989, ill. on the
front cover; Exhibition catalog, Robert Wogensky, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1989, ill. p. 1;
Gérard Denizeau, Denise Majorel, une vie pour la tapisserie, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989, ill. p. 70