Jean Lurçat

Lurçat's œuvre was immense; nevertheless, it was his role in the renewal of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. As early as 1917, he began with works on canvas, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates from 1937, when he discovered—at the same time—the Apocalypse tapestry series at Angers, which definitively led him to devote himself to tapestry. He addressed technical questions first with François Tabard, and then, when he was installed in Aubusson during the war, he defined his system: large point, counted tones, drawn Cartoons, numbered. A vast production then began (more than 1000 Cartoons), amplified by his determination to bring along his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie), and the collaboration with the gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as an tireless propagator of the medium across the world.

Son œuvre tissée témoigne d’un art d’imagier spécifiquement décoratif, dans une iconographie symbolique très personnelle, cosmogonique (soleil, planètes, zodiaque, 4 éléments…), végétale stylisée, animale (boucs, coqs, papillons, chimères…), se détachent sur un fond sans perspective (volontairement éloigné de la peinture), et destinée, dans ses cartons les plus ambitieux, à faire partager une vision à la fois poétique (il émaille d’ailleurs parfois ces tapisseries de citations) et philosophique (les grands thèmes sont abordés dès la guerre : la liberté, la résistance, la fraternité, la vérité… ) et dont le point culminant sera le « Chant du Monde » ( Musée Jean Lurçat, ancien hôpital Saint-Jean, Angers) , inachevé à sa mort.

The brochette is discreet (in some Cartoons, Lurçat does not hesitate to place fish onto tridents), and the fish appear as though on a stall—an arrangement that echoes the partitioning of his famous armoires.

Bibliography:
Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939–1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957
n°12.
Exhibition cat. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976
Cat. Expo. Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986
Colloque Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie à Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992
Exhibition cat. Dialogues with Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992
Exhibition cat. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004
Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013
Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016