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  • Le réviseur (the reviser)

    Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With label, n°1/8. Circa 1980. Marc Petit met Jean Lurçat in 1954, went to Aubusson in 1955, exhibited his work for the first time at La Demeure in 1956, became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1958. After this lightning start to his career, he produced hundreds of cartoons, in a style all his own, where long-legged waders and acrobats wend in and out of dreamscapes.   An amusing design, which could be interpreted as the illustration of the antithesis of an author and his editor : here depicted by the curious association of a bird and a fish, in an extremely lively colour scheme.
     
  • Faiseur d'étoiles (Starmaker)

    Aubusson tapestry woven in the André workshop. With signed label, n°3/3. 1957.
    After the traditional completion of some mural paintings in the 1930’s, he then arrived in Aubusson in 1936, became closely associated with Picart le Doux in 1947 and then joined the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie). From then on he devoted himself to tapestry with zeal and designed 167 cartoons, at first figurative following on from Picart le Doux and Saint-Saëns, then, influenced by the scientific themes that he dealt with, tending more towards abstraction. In 1981, two years before his death, he donated his studio to the Musée départemental de la tapisserie in Aubusson. Jullien’s interest in science and technology was evident early on in his career, at the end of the 1950’s, and this position singled him out somewhat among the other designers of the post-war period known in France as the “30 glorieuses”  (despite a few works by Matégot, Maurice André and particularly Millecamps).  Jullien imagined in 1961 an exhibition of his works entitled “Espace Poétique de l’Industrie” (Poetry in Industry) where he exhibited “Diamant noir” (the coal mine), Métropolis (oil refineries),  ..., and this piece “Faiseur d’étoiles”,  an allegory of autogenous welding. Bibliography : Exhibition Catalogue, Espace poétique de l'industrie, galerie La Demeure, 1961 (ill.) Exhibition catalogue Hommage à Louis-Marie Jullien, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1983
  • Mirage

    Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With label. Circa 1965.
    Fumeron designed his first cartoons (he would ultimately make over 500) in the 1940’s, in collaboration with the Pinton workshop, he was then commissioned on numerous occasions by the state before participating in the decoration of the ocean liner “France”. His work was figurative to begin with and influenced by Lurçat, then turned towards abstraction, before coming back to a style characterised by colourful figurative and realistic depictions from the 1980’s onwards. This is a particularly interesting cartoon by Fumeron, one of his best in an abstract vein which puts him on an equal footing with Matégot.
     
     
  • Lumière du silence (Light of the silence)

     
    Aubusson tapestry woven in the Legoueix workshop. Complete with signed label, n°3/4. Circa 1970.  
    Originally a sculptor exploiting very diverse materials (steel, concrete, clay…), Borderie came to tapestry with immense enthusiasm in the 1950’s with the weaving of his first cartoon in 1957. Receiving encouragement from Denise Majorel, he was awarded the Grand Prix National de la Tapisserie in 1962. In 1974 he was appointed as director at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs at Aubusson but he resigned from this post shortly thereafter. He designed over 500 painted cartoons, abstracts using simple shapes, shading in a limited palette of colours and weaving with gros points.   A dynamic abstraction with a limited colour scheme running from orange to brown, abstract motifs which play on the plastic effect of light passing through the colours : a classic cartoon from André Borderie.   Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue André Borderie « pour l’homme simplement », Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine 1998 J.J. et B. Wattel, André Borderie et la tapisserie d'Aubusson, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2018
  • Waistcoat l'enfant aux mirages (child with mirages)

    Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. 1997.
    Provenance : Sautour-Gaillard workshop
    A pupil of Wogensky at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, Sautour-Gaillard had his first cartoon woven in 1971 by the Legoueix workshop (a collaboration which was to last), and from then on he designed many very large-scale projects of which the most spectacular was “Pour un certain idéal” a series of 17 tapestries dealing with the theme of Olympianism (property of the Musée de l’Olympisme in Lausanne). If at first close to lyrical abstraction, the artist produced in the 1990’s cartoons superimposing different decorative motifs, textures and figures whose unity originated in the woven texture itself. The 2 waistcoats from the exhibition « Archéologies » which was held at the Inard gallery in 1997, are  evidence  of the  wish expressed at the period by people from Aubusson, which was going through difficult times, to widen their activity : Sautour-Gaillard, who was himself an enthusiastic collector of fabrics, reveals here the same inspiration as in his contemporary woven collages. Bibliography : D. Cavelier, Jean-René Sautour-Gaillard, la déchirure, Lelivredart, 2013, ill. p.6, (worn by the artist) 296
     
  • La rivière d'argent (the silver river)

    Aubusson tapestry woven in the Hamot workshop to the artist’s cartoon. With certificate of origin signed by the artist. Circa 1960. It was in 1953 that Jean Picart le Doux proposed to Chaye to become his assistant and encouraged him to design tapestry cartoons : he would produce numerous bucolic cartoons, but also views of Normandy (Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur, regattas,…) whence he came. A classic cartoon in the naturalistic vein of this particular artist, who made a speciality of enclosures, hedges and riverbanks with animals.
  • Chili

    Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With signed label. Circa 1955.
    Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential  in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. As is often the case, the title makes a reference to Latin America. As for the circular motif accompanying the owl, it is a classic as in, for example, “Forêt bleue”  or “La chouette des figuiers”,... Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016  
  • La table de jardin (the table garden)

    Aubusson tapestry woven in the Hamot workshop. Editor’s certificate of origin, n° 4 of 6. Circa 1970.
    Odette Caly, who specialised in the depiction of bouquets, designed numerous cartoons for Aubusson, woven in the Pinton, Henry or Hamot workshops. Her inspiration, typically using meadow flowers, is here emphasised by the use of a border which refers back to the historical tapestry tradition. “La table du jardin” is reproduced in the “Tapisserie d’Aubusson” dossier edited by the Guéret Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the beginning of the 1980’s as evidence of the technical skill of the Aubusson workshops. Bibliography : Multi-authored, Caly, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1972, reproduit n°13
  • Le petit oiseleur (the little bird-catcher)

    Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With label, n°1/6. Circa 1970.
    Elie Grekoff, whose aesthetic is similar to that of Lurçat, designed over 300 cartons.
    “The little bird catcher” is typical of a vein characteristic of Grekoff where melancholic children consider each other within a dream-like landscape against a background of large flat areas of colour, redolent of an illustration for a folk tale.
  • Le Méridien étoilé (the starry meridian)

    Aubusson tapestry woven in the Berthaut workshop. circa 1948.
    Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département … In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his inspiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), man, literary quotation … This cartoon is extracted from « Cosmogonie » (Bruzeau n°11), from 1948, here presented in a vertical format and without featuring the quotation from Goethe. The theme of the Astrolabe will be recurrent in his work, notably his eponymous tapestry of 1955. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 Exhibition Catalogue, Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980

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