François FAUREAU

François Faureau is a singular figure. Born in Aubusson, he studied at the ENAD, of which at the time the director was Marius Martin who was already promoting the use of thick yarn and counted colours that Lurçat would later adopt. Thus he was a representative of the peintre-cartonniers at the stand of the ENAD at the Exposition internationale des Arts décoratifs in 1925 with his tapestry “Solitude, verdure” or the screen “Canards”, which hesitate between neo-classicism and the influence of cubism. He later founded his own workshop, but his production remained somewhat confidential, and somewhat removed from the protagonists of the “Tapestry Renaissance”.

On his return to Aubusson in 1962, after a long absence, Faureau devoted all his energy to tapestry, working as a cartoonist and weaver. His aesthetic was less radical then than it had been in the 1920s, and he drew on traditional themes: one can sense the influence of both Lurçat and Perrot.