Jean Lurçat

Lurçat's body of work is immense, but it is his role in the revival of the art of tapestry that has ensured his place in history. He began working with canvas in 1917, then collaborated with Marie Cuttoli in the 1920s and 1930s. His first collaboration with Les Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he discovered the Apocalypse tapestry in Angers, which inspired him to devote himself entirely to tapestry. He first tackled technical issues with François Tabard, then, when he moved to Aubusson during the war, he defined his own system: large stitches, counted tones, numbered cartoons.

A huge production then began (more than 1,000 cartoons), amplified by his desire to train his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as a tireless promoter of the medium throughout the world.

His woven work reflects a specifically decorative art of imagery, with a highly personal, cosmogonic iconography (sun, planets, zodiac, four elements, etc.), stylized plants, animals (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras, etc.), stand out against a background without perspective (deliberately distanced from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes embellishes these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes were addressed as early as the war: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth, etc.) and culminating in the "Chant du Monde" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean Hospital, Angers), which was unfinished at the time of his death.

« C’est une version très originale que donne Lurçat, du thème des mois illustré par la tapisserie depuis de nombreux siècles. Chacun des mois est symbolisé par une bulle d’où naissent des éléments de végétation ou encore des rayons de soleil.
Conçue dans le même esprit que le « De Natura solari rerum », cette pièce préfigure « Es la verdad », dans laquelle on retrouve, un peu à la façon d’une bordure, placés en fridse, les douze mois de l’année » (Martine Mathias in Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, le combat et la victoire, centenaire, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992, p.43)

Bibliographie :
Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957
Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 ans après, 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
Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, le combat et la victoire, centenaire, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992, ill. p.43
Colloque Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie à Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992
Cat. Expo. Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992
Cat. Expo. 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