The Hyades
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Atelier Legoueix.
With its bolduc signed by the artist, no. 5/6.
1968.
Member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Painter-Cartoonists), Wogensky was one of the many artists who devoted themselves to tapestry following Lurçat in the immediate post-war years. First influenced by him, Wogensky’s work (159 cartoons, according to the 1989 exhibition catalogue) then evolved during the 1960s toward a lyrical abstraction that was not always fully embraced: from cosmic-astronomical themes to decomposed, moving forms of birds, toward cartoons that were more pared down and less dense. Although he had always proclaimed himself a painter, the artist’s thinking about tapestry was highly developed: “To create a wall cartoon…. is to think in relation to a space that no longer belongs to us, by its dimensions, its scale; it is also the demand for a broad gesture that transforms and heightens our presence.” “Les Hyades” belongs to Wogensky’s “cosmic” vein (its very title attests to this), which ran throughout the 1960s, and whose highlights were “Cosmos” (1968, Université de Strasbourg) and “Galaxie” (1970, Sénat, palais du Luxembourg). Chiné (omnipresent) strokes and flat areas coexist there in harmonious, nuanced color accords, in a curious, unknown world—at once close to very small cells seen under a microscope, and to the infinitely vast. Bibliographie : Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, l’oeuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, 1989 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1989-1990
