All tapestries

   

          An important figure in the "New Tapestry" movement, woven by Pierre Daquin and exhibited at the La Demeure gallery in the 1970s, Jacques Brachet has, since the 1950s, taken an innovative and experimental approach to the medium, established by the creation of the mural art workshop at the Centre International d'Études Pédagogiques in Sèvres, by staging "Tapestry in France, 1945-1985, la tradition vivante" at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and the design of his tapestry-actions to the present day.   Brachet traveled to Japan in 1972. His specifically textile intuitions (as distinct from painting): invention of forms, use of new materials, natural themes, etc., found a renewed direction there. Paradoxically, our tribute to one of the flamboyant figures with a tragic destiny in post-war Japan remains, "textilely" speaking, measured: respect for two dimensions, classic weaving, wool, etc. The colorful motifs (dominated by the red disc of the sun) contrast with the white background, like a flash of light on the seppuku sword.     Bibliography: Madeleine Jarry, La tapisserie art du XXe siècle, Office du livre, 1974, ill. no. 157 Exhibition catalog: Jacques Brachet, Mémoires océanes, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1996

    Lurçat approached Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, in 1940. And during the war, Saint-Saëns produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries depicting indignation, combat, and resistance: "Les Vierges folles" (The Mad Virgins) and "Thésée et le Minotaure" (Theseus and the Minotaur). At the end of the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, whose convictions he shared (on numbered cartoons and limited tones, on the specific style required for tapestry, etc.) within the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie). His universe, in which the human figure, stretched and elongated, occupies a considerable place (compared in particular to the place it occupies in the work of his colleagues Lurçat and Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: women, the Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths, etc., sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. He then evolved in the 1960s towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, dominated by cosmic elements and forces. "Fire" is the fourth^e Part of a tapestry depicting the "Four Elements," commissioned by Jansen, woven by Dumontet, and exhibited in 1946 at the Museum of Modern Art. The artist frequently used myths and allegories at the time: "Orion," "Diane," and "Theseus and the Minotaur" are contemporaneous. Here, the muscular figure of a blacksmith-Vulcan, glowing like embers and radiating against a background of flames, leaves an unforgettable impression.     Bibliography: Exhibition catalog. French Tapestry from the Middle Ages to the Present Day, Paris, Museum of Modern Art, 1946. Exhibition catalog. Saint-Saëns, Paris, La Demeure Gallery, 1970, ill. Exhibition catalog. Saint-Saëns, woven works, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1987. Exhibition catalog. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1997-1998.