les Hyades
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop.
With signed label, no. 5/6.
1968.
A member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie), Wogensky is one of the many artists who would follow in Lurçat’s footsteps immediately after the war. At first influenced by his predecessor, Wogensky’s subsequent work (159 cartoons according to the 1989 exhibition catalogue) would evolve during the 1960’s towards a, not completely self-avowed, lyrical abstraction, from cosmic-astronomical themes expressed in decomposed, moving, birdlike shapes to cartoons both more refined and less dense. Although always claiming to be a painter, the artist’s conception of tapestry is extremely well thought out : “the realisation of a mural cartoon…. requires the consideration of a space which is no longer ours alone, by the nature of its dimensions, its scale, it also imposes a grand gesture which transforms and accentuates our presence.”
‘Les Hyades’ belongs to Wogensky’s ‘cosmic’ phase (as the title itself suggests), which spanned the 1960s and reached its high points in ‘Cosmos’ (1968, University of Strasbourg) and ‘Galaxie’ (1970, Senate, Palais du Luxembourg). Marled fabrick (which is omnipresent) and flat tints coexist in subtle colour harmonies, within a curious, unknown world, as close to the tiny cells seen under a microscope as it is to the infinitely vast.
Bibliography :
Exhibition catalogue Robert Wogensky, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, 1989
Exhibition catalogue Robert Wogensky, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1989-1990
