Suburb
An Aubusson tapestry woven in the Atelier Goubely.
With its signed authenticity label (bolduc).
1945.
A fervent admirer of mural art from 1937 (he took part in the Exposition Internationale), Lagrange drew his first Cartoons in 1945, and became one of the founding members of the A.P.C.T. First expressionist (as with Matégot or Tourlière), his Cartoons (from his collaboration with Pierre Baudouin) evolved toward a stylization that, in the 1970s, led to Cartoons made of pared-down signs in pure tones. Moreover, beyond his role in the revival of tapestry (and the associated public commissions), Lagrange was a Professor at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, but also a regular collaborator of Jacques Tati, a designer of monumental sets, and, finally, a recognized painter-artist, close to Estève or Lapicque.
“Banlieue”, his first tapestry woven in Aubusson, tells the story of the mattress-carders as they make the wool fly through the streets with a curious machine,” the artist explains. In his early days, Lagrange took up themes of the banlieue in a realistic vein—indeed, even expressionistic—along with those of trades (amusing mise en abyme about wool-working), of everyday life (cf. Guignebert “le marché aux puces”, contemporary), in a vein that is the very opposite of Lurçat’s cosmogony. The tapestry was exhibited in 1946, and two examples are kept in public collections at the Musée de la-Chaux-de -Fonds and at that of the Pays d’Ussel.
Bibliography:
n°58.
n°69.
Cat. Exp. Lagrange, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1987, reproduit p.16-17
Cat. Exp. Jean Lurçat, compagnons de route et passants considérables, Felletin, Eglise du château, 1992, reproduced p.29
Robert Guinot, Jacques Lagrange, les couleurs de la vie, Lucien Souny editeur, 2005, n°28, reproduced
Gérard Denizeau, Denise Majorel, une vie pour la tapisserie, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, reproduit p.73
J.J. et B. Wattel, Jacques Lagrange ets es toiles : peintures, tapisseries, cinéma, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2020, reproduced p.33, 70-71
