Cap Canaveral (Cape Canaveral)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop.
With signed label, n°2/6.
1958.
Matégot, originally a decorator, then creator of artefacts and furniture (an activity he abandoned in 1959) met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, first of all figurative then rapidly of abstract design in the 1950’s. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in many international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an untiring advocate of the art of tapestry) fulfilled numerous public commissions, sometimes of monumental proportions (“Rouen” 85m2 for the Préfecture of the Seine Maritime département, and also tapestries for Orly Airport, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF…) and designed no fewer than 629 cartoons up until the 1970’s. In 1990 the Matégot foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, U.S.A. Matégot is an artist, like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, who turns wool textiles resolutely towards the abstract: at first lyrical, geometric in the 70’s, exploiting various technical aspects of the loom : colour graduations, shading, irregularities…
Matégot, in this piece, makes his statement as a representative of “les 30 glorieuses”, or the three decades of prosperity following the war, which are the framework for the technical innovations of the period. His interest in aeronautics is demonstrated by ‘Take-off’, ‘Landing’ and, of course, ‘Orly’ woven at the Gobelins for the inauguration of the new terminal. Obviously no rockets are depicted on this tapestry, which is a lyrical evocation of technological progress.
Bibliography :
Waldemar Georges, Mathieu Matégot, Prisme des Arts special issue, 1957
Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991
Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014, ill. p.313
