Robert WOGENSKY

Wogensky encountered Lurçat as early as 1939, but he only worked with him after the war, creating his first Cartoon in 1945 (which was already entitled « les oiseaux »), and soon joined the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie). A Professor of Mural Art at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués in Paris, Wogensky produced 159 Cartoons up until the 1980s, most of which were woven by Legoueix. « Wool has a hot blood like man. It puts us at ease and reassures us. A wall of wool is a more human, more living wall » (remarks collected in Robert Guinot, « la Tapisserie d’Aubusson et de Felletin », Lucien Souny, 2009). It was this credo that inspired Wogensky’s creation, in lyrical flights (in the literal sense, since the bird—often stylized—is one of his preferred subjects), in certain Cartoons (especially from the late 1970s), which are resolutely abstract, in his Cartoons from « Histoire Naturelle » (the title borne by one of his tapestries, in 1961), or « cosmic » designs, featuring constellations or natural elements. « I have always taken pleasure in working on large formats, » he would also tell Robert Guinot. While our Cartoon appears modest compared with some of Wogensky’s official commissions (University of Strasbourg, the Conference Hall of the Senate, etc.), its subject allows for spatial dilation, a surge of these elliptical bird motifs, brought to life by the chromatic energy of the vivid red flat fields of the backgrounds. Bibliography : Cat. Expo. 25 ans de tapisserie française 1944, Paris, Manufacture des Gobelins, 1969, n°33 Cat. Expo. Oiseaux solaires, oiseaux marins, tapisseries de Robert Wogensky, Paris, galerie la Demeure, n°5 ill. Cat. Expo. La Tapisserie et l’Espace, Châteauroux, couvent des Cordeliers, 1978, n°21 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, l’oeuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, 1989, ill. p.34 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1989, ill. p.20