Structure and light
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop.
With its ribbon signed by the artist, no. 1/6.
1964.
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Matégot, initially a decorator, then a designer of objects and furniture (an activity he gave up in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in numerous international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was a tireless advocate of tapestry), and fulfilled many public commissions, some of them monumental ("Rouen," 85 m2 for the Seine-Maritime prefecture, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for Contemporary Tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot, along with other artists such as Wogensky, Tourlière, and Prassinos, was one of those who resolutely steered wool toward abstraction, initially lyrical, then geometric in the 1970s, exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradients, beating, stitching, stippling, etc. "Structure and light" has a programmatic value: at the time, Matégot's tapestries were highly contrasting and aimed for effects of transparency, like stained glass (see "Piège de lumière" (Light Trap), "Ombres et lumières" (Shadows and Light), etc.). As for "structure," it refers both to Matégot's work as an architect and decorator, whose function is to arrange and occupy space, but above all to organize the space of the tapestry itself, notwithstanding its apparent disorderly lyricism. Bibliography: Madeleine Jarry, La Tapisserie art du XXe siècle, Office du Livre, 1974, reproduced as no. 115 Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991, reproduced on p.44 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014, reproduced on p.335 (with the artist in front during the 1990 exhibition)
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Figure of three
Tapestry woven by the Saint-Cyr workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist, no. 1/6. Circa 1970. Unknown artist, whose inspiration comes from music and music theory; the geometry of the keyboard and the lines of the score serve as the framework for the cartoon. -
Plant world
Lurçat's body of work is immense, but it is his role in the revival of the art of tapestry that has ensured his place in history. He began working with canvas in 1917, then collaborated with Marie Cuttoli in the 1920s and 1930s. His first collaboration with Les Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he discovered the Apocalypse tapestry in Angers, which inspired him to devote himself entirely to tapestry. He first tackled the technical issues with François Tabard, then, when he moved to Aubusson during the war, he defined his own system: large stitches, counted tones, numbered cartoons. A huge production then began (more than 1,000 cartoons), amplified by his desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and his collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as a tireless promoter of the medium throughout the world. His woven work bears witness to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a highly personal, cosmogonic symbolic iconography (sun, planets, zodiac, four elements, etc.), stylized plants, animals (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras, etc.), stand out against a background without perspective (deliberately distanced from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes embellishes these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war onwards: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth, etc.) and culminating in the "Chant du Monde" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean Hospital, Angers), which was unfinished at the time of his death. "Univers végétal" is a paradox: there are more animals than plants. We can already see (as early as 1944) this desire to compartmentalize space, which Lurçat would develop in his cabinets and other bestiaries: stuffed animals, like in a cabinet of curiosities, rest on shelves suspended by chains, under starry skies, in a poetic extension aimed at conveying the Unity of Nature. The tapestry was woven in different formats, as evidenced by the 1946 exhibition: vertical and square (2 x 2 m and 3 x 3 m) for Jansen, a Parisian decorator whose mark appears woven into the tapestry, even though he did not have a workshop in Aubusson (the Dumontet workshop was responsible for his weavings). Bibliography: Exhibition catalog. La tapisserie française, Musée d'art moderne, Paris, 1946, nos. 278-279 Sieben Jahrhunderte Französische Wandteppiche, Wort und Tat, ill. Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957, ill. nos. 31, 99 (details) Exhibition catalog. Jean Lurçat, tapisseries de la fondation Rothmans, Musée de Metz, 1969, cat. no. 6 Exhibition catalog. Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalog. Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie à Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1992 Exhibition catalog. Dialogues avec Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Exhibition catalog. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition catalog: Jean Lurçat, Meister der französischen Moderne, Halle, Kunsthalle, 2016 Exhibition catalog: Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, Galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven for Jansen. 1944.
