Jean Lurçat

Lurçat's body of work is immense; yet it is his role in the renewal of the art of tapestry that has secured his lasting legacy. Starting in 1917, he began with works on canvas, and then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates from 1937, when he also discovers, at the same time, the Apocalyse tapestry series at Angers, which definitively prompts 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, counted tones, drawn cartoons, Numbered. A gigantic production then begins (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by his 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 tireless promoter of the medium across the world. His woven work bears witness to a specifically decorative imagier-like art, with a highly personal, symbolic iconography that is cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, the 4 elements…), stylized vegetal motifs, and animals (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras…) set against a background without perspective (deliberately distant from painting).

A gigantic production then begins (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by his 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 tireless promoter of the medium across the world.

Son œuvre tissée témoigne d’un art d’imagier spécifiquement décoratif, dans une iconographie symbolique très personnelle, cosmogonique (soleil, planètes, zodiaque, 4 éléments…), végétale stylisée, animale (boucs, coqs, papillons, chimères…), se détachent sur un fond sans perspective (volontairement éloigné de la peinture), et destinée, dans ses cartons les plus ambitieux, à faire partager une vision à la fois poétique (il émaille d’ailleurs parfois ces tapisseries de citations) et philosophique (les grands thèmes sont abordés dès la guerre : la liberté, la résistance, la fraternité, la vérité… ) et dont le point culminant sera le « Chant du Monde »( Musée Jean Lurçat, ancien hôpital Saint-Jean, Angers), inachevé à sa mort.

Le thème de la table dressée est un leitmotiv chez Lurçat, dès les années 40 (cf. Les quatre coins, 1943, Atelier Goubely-Gatien , Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine). Ces tables, parfois très « cornes d’abondance », et accompagnée souvent d’instruments de musique (mandoline en général) rappellent les tableaux de nature morte du XVIIe siècle, thème étranger d’ailleurs à la tapisserie d’alors.

Bibliography:
Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939–1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957
Exhibition cat. Lurçat, 10 years later, 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
Exhibition cat. Dialogues with Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992
Exhibition cat. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004
Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013
Exhibition cat. Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016