Saint-Mars (composition blues black yellow red white)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop.
With label.
1963.
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From early on in his career, Mortensen, favoured an abstract painting style. He settled in Paris in 1947 and showed his works, with other artists also inclined to geometric abstraction, at the Denise René gallery. In 1952 under the aegis of François Tabard and Vasarely an exhibition titled « 12 original tapestries » opened at the gallery where, in the company of Le Corbusier and Léger, there appeared works by Deyrolle, Taueber-Arp and Mortensen who thus became the first abstract painters to be reproduced in tapestry and a new art form was born (in this context, it must not be forgotten that this is the period where the “Lurçat style” was absolutely dominant) which Gilioli, Matégot and Tourlière will all subsequently claim as their own. Mortensen’s collaboration with the “René-Tabard tapestries” will last until 1968, even though he returned to his native Denmark in 1964. The 14 works of the artist which will be woven are characterised by his large-scale geometrical compositions, using bright, light and contrasting colours in large expanses of colour, which the weavers of the Tabard workshop reproduce with great success. « One of the loveliest » of Mortensen’s tapestries according to Valentine Fougère (Tapisseries de notre temps, Paris 1969), « Saint Mars », a somewhat obscure title, derives directly from an engraving from 1962. The style which is wholly geometric, consisting of blocks of primary colour and surrounded by a frame, is characteristic of this artist’s style in the years 1961-2. This model, which was to be found both at the Mobilier National (bought from the Denise René gallery in 1963) and also at the Cité de la Tapisserie in Aubusson, was woven in 2 sizes : 3 and 6 sqm big, respectively. Bibliography : Madeleine Jarry, la Tapisserie, art du XXe siècle, Fribourg, 1974, ill. n°145 Exhibition catalogue, Aubusson, la voie abstraite, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1993, ill. p.14 (on a photograph of a 1964 exhibition at the Denise René gallery) p.32 Acts of the colloquium, la tapisserie hier et aujourd’hui, Paris, 2011, ill. n°6 p.213 Visitor’s guide, nef des tentures, Cité internationale de la Tapisserie, Aubusson, 2016, ill. p.84
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Les zèbres (zebras)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With label, n°3/6. Circa 1970. -
La crique (the cove)
As a young painter moving towards abstraction in the late 40s, Longobardi was commissioned to paint large-scale murals in France and abroad (the presidency of the Republic of Abidjan, the rectorate of the Poitiers Academy, etc.), as well as numerous tapestry cartoons, in particular for the Manufactures Nationales, with sometimes very modern subjects (‘l'autostrade’, ‘l'aéroport’, etc.). Longobardi, along with Singier and Springer, was one of the very first abstract artists to receive public commissions at the time. Although his work was abstract, his aesthetic evolved over time, from sharp forms to a more lyrical style full of movement, until the appeasement of the 1960s. The high point of his meteoric official career came when he was commissioned to create ‘la crique’ for the starboard private dining room of the liner ‘France’. After this, the artist became much rarer. Our tapestry bears witness to a marine inspiration that is not so frequent on the liner "France", and which, moreover, remained on the borderline between Abstraction (his usual mode of expression) and Figuration. It was sold under number 170 in the Loudmer sale of 10.7.1983, ‘Œuvres d'art du France’. Provenance : liner "France" Bibliography : Cat. Expo. Le Mobilier National et les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais sous la IVe République, Beauvais, Galerie de la Tapisserie, 1997 Armelle Bouchet-Mazas, le paquebot France, éditions Norma, 2006, ill.p.170 Cat. Expo. Le chic ! Arts décoratifs et mobilier de 1930 à 1960, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2022-23Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. 1959. -
Matégot, originally a decorator, then creator of artefacts and furniture (an activity he abandoned in 1959) met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, first of all figurative then rapidly of abstract design in the 1950’s. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in many international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an untiring advocate of the art of tapestry) fulfilled numerous public commissions, sometimes of monumental proportions (“Rouen” 85m2 for the Préfecture of the Seine Maritime département, and also tapestries for Orly Airport, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and designed no fewer than 629 cartoons up until the 1970’s. In 1990 the Matégot foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, U.S.A. Matégot is an artist, like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, who turns wool textiles resolutely towards the abstract: at first lyrical, geometric in the 70’s, exploiting various technical aspects of the loom : colour graduations, shading, irregularities... While Matégot's interest in aeronautics was very strong at the time (his tapestry for Orly in particular dates from 1959, ‘Cap Canaveral’ from 1958...), his liking for the treatment of great myths is echoed here: Icarus (there was also ‘Vulcan’, ‘Daedalus’...), serves as a transition, in an identical treatment (to be compared with ‘Orly’), to evoke the same conquest of the Air... Bibliography : Waldemar Georges, Mathieu Matégot, Prisme des Arts special issue, 1957 Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991, ill. p.31 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014
Icare (Icarus)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. N°1/6. 1960. -
Aubusson
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Goubely workshop. 1940.Gromaire’s woven pieces are few in number : 11 cartoons, designed between 1938 and 1944, most of them in Aubusson. “His rigorous construction, his use of simplification, his penchant for grand composition and grand fundamental ideas, his knowledgeable use of colour and in sum his supreme quality as a master-craftsman, all of those things were to make of him one of the most expert tapestry artists of his time”, so wrote Jean Cassou (Exhibition catalogue, Marcel Gromaire, Paris, Musée Nationale d’art moderne, 1963). It was Guillaume Janneau, then in the chair of the Mobilier National, who contacted him in 1938, convinced that his style (simplification of shape, geometrical designs framed in black, influenced by cubism, limited colour schemes…) would have something to contribute to the resolution of the new aesthetic problems that the art of tapestry would have to confront in order to bring about its renewal (simplified palette, synthetic cartoon design...) firstly with a commission for a work on the theme of the four elements, then with a second (“les saisons”, the seasons) which would be produced at Aubusson. In 1940 Gromaire joined Lurçat and Dubreuil there. Working alone, with great meticulosity (numerous drawings anticipate the cartoon which is painted rather than numbered as with Lurçat), in close collaboration with Suzanne Goubely, who would weave all his cartoons, he spent 4 years in Aubusson, during which time he devoted all his creative energy to tapestry. At the end of the war, he left the Creuse and produced no more cartoons, leaving to Lurçat the position of grand initiator of the tapestry renewal movement. « Aubusson » is one of the 5 tapestry cartoons that Gromaire designed for the Goubely workshop during the War, and it is emblematic of his « stained glass window » style, busy and geometric. And even if one recognises some of the emblematic features of Aubusson (the clock tower, the church of Sainte Croix...), which Gromaire was coming to know at the time, the town appears to be squeezed in by the rugged natural features that surround it (to which the artist was particularly attracted as can be seen from the many drawings made at this time) steep cliffs and rushing rivers and streams.Interestingly, a copy of this cartoon, woven later in 1960, was displayed in the ocean liner “France”, the only tapestry whose conception predated the commission for the decorative hangings ; what better symbol could there be as a medium (tapestry) and a subject (France’s own landscape) both vectors of tradition, to portray the modernity of French style (Bruno Foucart), and the liner “France” herself. Bibliography : Tapisseries contemporaines Lurçat Gromaire, éditions Braun et cie, 1943, ill. Le Point, Aubusson et la renaissance de la Tapisserie, mars 1946, ill. Formes et couleurs, n°5-6, 1942, ill. L’amour de l’art, la tapisserie Française, 1946, ill. p.185 Jean Lurçat, Tapisserie française, Bordas, 1947 J. Cassou, M. Damain, R. Moutard-Uldry, la tapisserie française et les peintres cartonniers, Tel, 1957 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, compagnons de route et passants considérables, Eglise de Felletin, 1992, ill. p. 25 (and detail on front cover) Exhibition catalogue, Gromaire, œuvre tissée, Aubusson, Musée de la tapisserie, 1995, ill. p. 53 (and on front cover) Exhibition catalogue La manufacture des Gobelins dans la première moitié du XXe siècle, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la tapisserie, 1999 Armelle Bouchet Mazas, le paquebot France, Paris, 2006, ill. p.67 Aubusson, Cité internationale de la tapisserie, guide du visiteur, 2016, ill.p.57 -
Technique de groupe (group technique)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Novion workshop. With label. 1973.A Benedictine monk and an illuminator, Dom Robert met Jean Lurçat in 1941 at the Abbey of En Calcat : while he never abandoned drawing (his watercolours, painted to life, would serve him as a reservoir of ideas for his tapestries), his work as a cartoonist (he was a member of the A.P.C.T. from its inception) would take on a considerable importance (at least a hundred cartoons, all numbered) and would be highly thought of. His immediately recognisable style, absence of perspective¸motifs inspired from the natural world (in a Paradisiac style) where stylised flora and fauna combine in a festive and extrovert exuberance, where the influence of mediaeval tapestry can be clearly felt ; poetic and colourful, Dom Robert’s cartoons are the incarnation of their author’s spiritual asceticism. Inaugurated in the Spring of 2015, the musée Dom Robert opened its doors in in the monastery-school in Sorèze in the department of the Tarn. Although the theme of horses runs through a lot of Dom Robert’s work (cf. “Dartmoor”, “Compagnons de la Marjolaine”, « Farfadet » …), what makes « Technique de groupe » particularly interesting is its origin and the technical aspects of its realisation : unusually, this cartoon is not numbered ; it was Novion, at the time a teacher at the Ecole Nationale d’Art Décoratif in Aubusson, who asked dom Robert to make a watercolour (now held at the museum in Sorèze), thus allowing the weaver more interpretative freedom, and a very different end result, from work made by the workshops of Goubely or Tabard. Bibliography : Cat. Expo. Dom Robert, tapisseries récentes, Paris, Galerie la Demeure, 1974, ill. p.9 Multi-authored, Dom Robert, Tapisseries, Editions Julliard, 1980, ill. p.68-69 Multi-authored, Dom Robert, Tapisseries, Editions Siloë-Sodec, 1990, ill. p.116-117 Exhibition Catalogue, Dom Robert, œuvre tissé, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1990, ill. Multi-authored, la clef des champs, Dom Robert, Editions Privat, 2003, ill. p. 109
