Jean Lurçat

The work of Lurçat was immense: however, it was his role in the renewal of the art of tapestry that earned him lasting renown. Starting in 1917, he began with works on canvas, and then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he would work with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates from 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the “Apocalypse” tapestry series from Angers, which definitively prompted him to devote himself to tapestry. He addressed technical questions first with François Tabard, and then, upon his installation in Aubusson during the war, he defined his system: gros point, tons comptés, Cartons dessinés numérotés. A gigantic production then began (more than 1000 Cartons), amplified by the desire to bring along his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and his collaboration with the gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then, by his role as an indefatigable promoter of the medium throughout the world. His woven work bears witness to an art of the designer, specifically decorative, with a very personal, symbolic iconography—cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, the 4 elements…), stylized vegetal forms, and animals (goats, cocks, butterflies, chimeras…)—set against a background without perspective (deliberately distanced from painting), and, in his most ambitious Cartons, intended to share a vision that was at once poetic (he even sometimes adorns these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes were addressed as early as the war: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth…)—the culminating point of which would be the “Chant du Monde” (Musée Jean Lurçat, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. To his traditional scattered motifs (stars, fish, butterflies….) teeming with life, Lurçat added 2 interlacing rays of light (hence the title) that alter the colors along their path: one could hardly show more clearly that the sun can be a danger for tapestry (another Carton, “Coup de soleil” (formerly in our possession) bears witness, in an even more explicit way, to the theme). Bibliography: 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 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, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016