Marc Saint-Saëns

Lurçat asked Saint-Saëns for his collaboration, first as a fresco painter, and from 1940 onward. And, during the war, Saint-Saëns produced his first allegorical masterpieces—tapestries of indignation, of combat, and of resistance: “les Vierges folles”, “Thésée et le Minotaure”. After the war, quite naturally, he joined Lurçat, sharing his convictions (about the numbered Cartoon and the counted tones, about the specific writing required by the tapestry,…) within the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie). His universe, in which the human figure—stretched, elongated—occupies a considerable place (compared in particular to the prominence it has in his fellow artists Lurçat, or Picart le Doux), revolved around traditional themes: woman, the Commedia dell’arte, Greek myths,… sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and by the simplification of the layout. He then evolved, in the 1960s, toward Cartoons that were more lyrical, almost abstract, in which cosmic elements and forces predominated. If Music was a constant in Saint-Saëns’s work, his stylistic evolution in the 1960s toward a more informal, biomorphic art affected the treatment of the subject; but wouldn’t such lyricism suit the expression of “Bel canto” ideally? Bibliography : Cat. Expo. La tapisserie française du Moyen-âge à nos jours, Paris, Musée d’Art moderne, 1946 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, Pars, galerie La Demeure, 1970, ill. Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, oeuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1987 Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapisseries, 1935-1979, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1997-1998