Composition n°4

Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop.
With signed label, n°1/5.
Circa 1960.

“First of all I like wool, its warmth…In tapestry, I can use both colour and graphic design”  wrote the artist in “Sculpture”, Paris, 1968. Better known as a sculptor, Gilioli would design his first cartoon in 1949, before winning in 1957 the Tapestry Prize at the Biennial in Sao Paulo ; in all he designed around a hundred tapestries, woven by the Pinton and Picaud workshops.

« My work is characterised by two tendencies : sometimes form will dominate and at others, line » : in this piece, the movement of line, highly inspired by graphic technique (and particularly challenging to render for the weavers of the tapestry), exists alongside four large, brightly coloured forms framing an effective synthesis of the artists twin preoccupations.

Bibliography :
Exhibition catalogue Gilioli, galerie La Demeure, 1971
Exhibition catalogue Des sculpteurs et la Tapisserie, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1995, p 45 and foll.
Exhibition catalogue Gilioli Tapisseries, Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny, 1997