Sérénade à la lune (moon serenade)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop.
N°IV/VI.
1952.
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Lente approche (slow approach)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Braquenié workshop. With label. Circa 1960. -
La girafe en feu (Flaming giraffe)
Despite Dali’s immense aura, his works have never been woven in the National Manufactures and, although the mechanically woven versions of his paintings are indeed (too?) numerous, the handwoven Aubusson tapestries of his works are extremely rare : only the Picaud and Jean Laurent workshops were privileged enough to produce them. It was Pierre Argillet who was their instigator. A close associate of the surrealists and particularly Dali, he put together a wonderful collection which he installed in the château at Vaux-le-Pénil in the department of Seine et Marne, where he opened his museum of Surrealism at the same period that Dali inaugurated his museum in Figueras (Teatro-museu Dali) : they agreed at the time to commission tapestries of earlier works of the artist to decorate the galeries of both locations. Hence « la girafe en feu » is the transposition of one of the 7 engravings of the series entitled « Tauromachie surréaliste » produced by Argillet in 1966 and was intended as a bridge connecting Picasso’s “ tauromaquia” and Dali’s surrealist inspiration (the flaming giraffe had been a recurrent trope since the 1930’s). From a technical point of view, the transfer from one medium to the other is visible proof of the highly skilled artistry of which the weavers had become masters since the tapestry renaissance of the 20th century.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Picaud workshop. With signed label, n°3/6. 1985. -
Composition
A major actor in the kinetic art movement (and more particularly lumino-kinetic art), the inventor of “spacio-dynamism” which was intrinsically linked to technological innovations and engineering discoveries of the 60’s and 70’s (information technology...), Schöffer is best known for his scaffolding-sculptures, which he would have liked to develop on a grander, architectural scale (a project existed for a tower in the Défense neighbourhood next to Paris). His multidisciplinary pieces (collaborations with Boulez, Barrault and Béjart), his attachment to the idea of “art total”, and the affirmed desire of public bodies of the period to support kinetic and technological art lead to him being sought out by the centre for textile research of the Mobilier National, for whom he would produce “Murlux”, a work of iinterweaving plastic tubes, set in a metal frame, where the effect of light passing through the structure could be explored by the spectator from all angles. This piece would not be followed by further development of the theme but 2 other cartoons were produced by the Manufactures Nationales (“Vartap I and II”), in a rather less challenging optical art style redolent of Vasarely or d’Agam. This cartoon lies somewhere between the projects described above : the materials used are undeniably associated with the medium (even though there is an abundant presence of metal threads), and the piece is definitely two-dimensional; however, the strips and indentations are a throw-back to the heterogeneous constructions of the artist’s sculptures (even though the underlying principle is one of symmetry) : an exceptional cartoon which is a rare illustration of the work of a profoundly original artist.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With label signed with the artist's stamp, n°1/6. Circa 1990.
