The Voice of the Reliquary
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop.
Label signed by the artist, no. 1/3.
1975.
A student of Wogensky at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, Sautour-Gaillard had his first tapestry cartoon woven in 1971 by the Legoueix workshop (a collaboration that has continued ever since), and he went on to create numerous monumental projects, the most spectacular of which is "Pour un certain idéal" (For a Certain Ideal), a series of 17 tapestries on the theme of Olympism (housed at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne). Initially close to lyrical abstraction, in the 1990s the artist created cartoons based on assemblages of decorative motifs, textures, and figures, seemingly superimposed and unified in the weaving.
"The Voice of the Reliquary" testifies to the artist's early affinity with the lyrical abstraction of a Soulages or a Schneider. Transposed into wool, we find the effects of gestures, even drips, characteristic of artists of "lyrical flight," in an extremely limited color palette.
Bibliography:
D. Cavelier, Jean-René Sautour-Gaillard, la déchirure, Lelivredart, 2013, ill. p.163
