November 21, 2024
Download Images
Press Preview
Thursday, December 12, 10 am
RSVP to Carolynn McCormack
[email protected]
CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTS EXHIBITION OF MODERN FRENCH TAPESTRY
Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris opens December 14, 2024
(Williamstown, Massachusetts)—Drawn from the celebrated collection of the Mobilier national, Paris, the Clark Art Institute’s latest exhibition explores tapestries from the 1940s to the present day. Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris includes artists Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983), Jean Lurçat (French, 1892–1966), Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954), and Le Corbusier (Swiss/French, 1887–1965), who were central to the rapid resurgence of tapestry production; mid-century abstraction by artists including Sonia Delaunay (French, 1885–1979) and Victor Vasarely (Hungarian/French, 1906–1997); and more recent productions including works by Gilles Aillaud (French, 1928–2005) and Kiki Smith (American, b. Germany, 1954). The exhibition is on view December 14, 2024 through March 9, 2025 in the Clark Center galleries.
“We are looking forward to sharing these exceptional works of art with our visitors,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “This is the first exhibition devoted to tapestry that the Clark has ever presented and we hope it will inspire people to appreciate the remarkable skill and artistry that goes into creating these incredible wall hangings.”
“Ancient technique and contemporary vision combines in these powerful works of art to create encounters at once monumental and intimate. The quiet nature of the matrix – woven with patience and skill from pliable materials – mediates the brightest colors and largest expanses, translating the vision of contemporary artists into something unexpected. I can’t wait to see these works hanging together in our galleries,” said Kathleen Morris, exhibition curator and Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions and curator of decorative arts.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The process of creating a tapestry is painstaking, involving artists, dyers, and weavers who collaborate to translate an artist’s design to a hand-woven wall hanging. Tapestry has a rich history spanning ages and cultures, but among the most enduring traditions is that of France, where tapestry production has a history extending back many centuries. Beginning in the Middle Ages, tapestries played an important role in the interior decoration of European churches, palaces, and public spaces, and those made in France were renowned for their quality, beauty, and grandeur.
Although it has a rich history, tapestry is not just an art of the past. In the mid-twentieth century, contemporary tapestry once again came into prominence in exhibitions and building decorations, and artists continue to make designs for tapestry today. One of the world’s great collections of twentieth and twenty-first centuries belongs to the Mobilier national of France, which has lent thirty-two examples by twenty-six different artists to Wall Power!. Dating from the 1940s to the present, this sampling provides an overview of the trends in French tapestry production over much of the last century.
ABOUT THE MOBILIER NATIONAL
Tracing its history back to the creation of a royal repository of furniture by King Henry IV in 1604, the Mobilier national of France manages the furniture, tapestries, and other objects belonging to the nation. It now holds a vast collection of furnishings dating across the centuries and used to decorate the official buildings of France around the world. The Mobilier national also administers historic workshops that produce tapestries, carpets, lace, and furniture, working with leading artists to create contemporary designs using ancient practices.
Tapestry has long been an important part of the cultural patrimony of France, but in the early twentieth century the industry faltered due to the depressed global economy and a decline in consumer demand. In the late 1930s, the historic Gobelins and Beauvais tapestry manufactories were brought under the administration of the Mobilier national, providing essential support to continue their operations. Following a mid-century revival that aligned tapestry production with the interests of contemporary artists, these factories continue vital collaborations with artists to produce a dozen or more contemporary tapestries each year. In addition to fostering these important collaborations, the Mobilier national supports training programs and jobs within the tapestry workshops, making it possible for the ancient craft of tapestry to remain alive and for the skill of the makers to be passed down from one generation to the next.
MAKING TAPESTRIES
Tapestries are woven on looms by artisans who follow a to-scale design positioned where they can see it. The loom is prepared with columns of undyed warp threads stretched between two parallel bars. Interpreting the design, the weavers interlace dyed weft threads of various colors through the warp threads, completely covering the warp threads in the process. There are two kinds of looms, which are positioned either with the warp threads vertical (high-warp) or horizontal (low-warp). The weaver sits behind the warp threads to work on a high-warp loom and leans over the threads to work on a low-warp loom. In both instances, the weaver works from the back of the tapestry. The manner of shifting the warps to allow for threaded bobbins or shuttles to interweave among them is done differently between the two types of looms, but the resulting tapestries look the same.
The designs that weavers follow are created by artists. Translating an artist’s design into the specific medium of tapestry is part of the expertise of the craft. This often requires a dialogue between the artist and the head weaver of a project to develop a plan—including density of threads, color palette, and weaving techniques—that will capture the artist’s intent while allowing the weavers to bring their specialized know-how to the individual challenges each design poses.
Jacques Lagrange’s (French, 1817–1995) Les Lissiers (The Weavers) (designed 1948, woven 1950) celebrates the very creation of a tapestry, with the crowded interior of the workshop rendered in vivid hues. Active as a painter and a tapestry designer, Lagrange was known for his bright palette and energetic line. By the light of hanging lamps, several figures work within a tapestry atelier. A figure at right winds yarn onto weaving bobbins, while at left a man stands beside the horizontal threads of a low-warp loom. Motifs are repeated, creating a sense of industry and activity.
THE TAPESTRY REVIVAL
Despite tapestry’s ancient and treasured heritage in France, by the early twentieth century the industry was in trouble. Because of the extremely labor-intensive nature of tapestry making, the finished works are inherently expensive. Tastes had changed but tapestry makers were still creating old-fashioned products that replicated the illusionism of oil painting. In the 1930s various artists, administrators, and entrepreneurs began experiments to align tapestry making in France with currents of contemporary art. In 1939 the French government tasked three artists—Pierre Dubreuil (French, 1872–1944), Marcel Gromaire (French, 1892–1971), and Jean Lurçat (French, 1892–1966)—to work alongside weavers in the private ateliers at Aubusson, a commune in the center of France. Led by the vision of Lurçat, these artists collaborated with weavers to create a contemporary style of tapestry that adopted techniques and design approaches from medieval times, but with a distinctly modernist look. With a broad weave, a limited palette of colors, and original designs, the results of what became acclaimed as a “tapestry revival” emerged at the end of the Second World War to become a phenomenon in Europe and North America.
L'Engragé (The Madman) (designed and woven 1950) reflects Lurçat’s interest in the tradition of medieval tapestry. With a restricted palette, he depicts a fantastical animal in the tradition of the medieval bestiary. This is one of many tapestries Lurçat had woven at the three-hundred-year-old Atelier Tabard in Aubusson. The private ateliers in Aubusson were important to the revival of tapestry in France as they were accustomed to making tapestries with less expensive means than the official weaving workshops at Les Gobelins and Beauvais, and many of the weavers welcomed new collaborations with contemporary artists. After the Second World War, François Tabard (French, 1902–1969), head of the Tabard atelier since 1927, decided to focus exclusively on works done in collaboration with contemporary artists.
OTHER REVIVALS
Beyond the adherents of Lurçat’s tapestry revival, other people worked in the 1930s and 1940s to modernize the designs of tapestry, but without linking them to medieval precedents. The entrepreneur and gallerist Marie Cutolli (French, 1879–1973) recruited avant-garde artists to work in the medium. Many of these artists translated existing paintings into textile, which due to their nontraditional styles proved a new challenge for weavers, even if the results seemed for some critics to be only reproductions of oil paintings. The administrators of the Mobilier national and the Gobelins factory also recruited artists to work in tapestry, seeking new ways for contemporary artists and weavers to collaborate.
Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983) made a life-size oil-on-canvas design for the tapestry Hirondelle Amour (Swallow Love) (designed 1934, woven October 10, 1977–September 30, 1979) at the request of Cuttoli in 1933–34. In the early 1930s Cuttoli worked with prominent artists, including Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973), Georges Braques (French, 1882–1963), and Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955), in an effort to revitalize French tapestry production. The resulting tapestries were exhibited in the United States in the late 1930s to both acclaim and criticism. Because many of them copied existing paintings by the artists, some critics felt they were no more than reproductions. However, these same critics praised Miró’s designs as being particularly suited for translation to tapestry given their abstract nature. Miró’s design for Hirondelle Amour was woven again in the late 1970s, resulting in several tapestries, including the one in the exhibition.
In 1946 the interest in modern tapestry was stimulated by the first exhibition held after the liberation of Paris at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris, now the Centre Pompidou. Dedicated to the history of French tapestry, the exhibition was intended to demonstrate how ancient French culture and tradition had endured and survived the chaos and rupture of the war. Dating from the fourteenth century to the mid-1940s, the exhibition contained 318 tapestries, about a quarter of which had been made within a few years of the exhibition. Versions of this exhibition traveled to venues in Europe and the United States, including well-attended stops in at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, further stimulating the interest in contemporary French tapestries.
MID-CENTURY DESIGN
In the late 1950s and 1960s collaborations between weaving workshops and contemporary artists intensified. The production of large-scale tapestry for use in modernist architectural spaces was promoted by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Swiss/French, 1887–1965), the architect who adopted the moniker Le Corbusier. In 1952 he invented the word “muralnomad” for tapestry, corresponding to his concept of the nature of modern life in which people moved homes frequently. For Le Corbusier, tapestry was the perfect form of interior decoration; it could command a large space but also easily be taken down, rolled up, and moved to new locations. Tapestry could also add visual interest, through texture, color, and line, to otherwise spare surroundings and assist with acoustics. According to Le Corbusier, to be effective in modern buildings, tapestry had to be large and wall-like—extending nearly from floor to ceiling and with a commensurate width. Le Corbusier’s ideas about tapestry and its role in architecture became influential, and contemporary tapestry became frequently used for interior decoration in new buildings around the world.
Upon being first invited by Cuttoli to create a tapestry design in the 1930s, Le Corbusier wrote to his mother, “I am entering the company of Picasso, Léger, Braque, Matisse, Rouault. I am delighted!” In all, he designed twenty-eight tapestries, most of them realized in collaboration with painter, weaver, and art instructor Pierre Baudouin (French, 1921–1971), including several that were first woven posthumously, such La Femme et la maréchal ferrant (The Woman and the Farrier) (designed 1958, woven January 23, 1967–August 10, 1967). Le Corbusier created the cartoon for this tapestry with Baudouin’s assistance; it was the last tapestry design Le Corbusier made prior to his death in 1965 and one of two tapestries by the artist included in the exhibition.
Many artists who worked primarily in painting or other media designed works to be made in tapestry. Dealers and other agents saw the possibilities of the market for tapestry and sought permission from artists or their estates to have pre-existing images woven into tapestry. The national tapestry factories were active in recruiting leading artists to provide designs, offering expertise and assistance in translating the artist’s typical painting or sculptural style into this medium.
ABSTRACTION AND MOVEMENT
Starting in the late 1950s, designs for tapestries became increasingly more abstract. In 1962, the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennial was launched to showcase contemporary tapestry and other fiber arts by international artists. Traditional tapestry remained a staple of the French portion of these biannual shows, with French artists and weaving workshops focusing more on evolution of design than technique. In 1969, all the submissions in the French section of the show were traditionally woven tapestries of abstract design.
Abstraction manifests in tapestry in different ways. Many of them create an illusionistic sense of three-dimensional depth while others create a sense of fluid movement across a flat surface. The works on view in this section of the exhibition demonstrate the importance of color in creating powerful visual effects. For each tapestry, a specific palette of colors is determined prior to weaving, often through consultation between the artist and the head weaver, and an expert dyer then oversees the process of custom dying the weft threads according to the number of individual colors needed and the length of weft threads required for each color.
Painter, sculptor, printmaker, and poet Jean Messagier (French, 1920–1999) developed a bold gestural style that evokes the power and rhythms of natural forces. In Flammes rouges (Red Flames) (designed 1970, woven September 1, 1969–February 3, 1971), swirling lines and blocks of red, orange, yellow, and blue evoke a spectacular conflagration. The energy of Messagier’s design also manifests itself on the reverse of the tapestry, where the weavers have left a riot of colored threads. The reverse side of tapestries, not intended to be seen during normal display, often include a complex network of threads left over from the weaving process, although they can sometimes be almost as neat as the viewing side. Visitors to Wall Power! are invited to walk around both sides of Flammes rouges to see how the makers left their own mark.
AN ENDURING TRADITION
Global interest in tapestry and other fiber arts declined in the 1980s. Exhibitions, publications, and outlets for promoting modern tapestry as an art dropped off. Cheaper products diluted the market, and the appreciation of tapestry as an art form in the years after the Second World War receded from memory. However, the Mobilier national continued its commitment to the medium, engaging with multiple artists each year to create new works on its looms. Along with some other workshops dedicated to tapestry-making, such as the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been in continuous operation since 1912; the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, established in 1976; and the West Dean Tapestry Studio in England, also in operation since 1976, the Mobilier national and the artisans at les Gobelins, Beauvais, and Aubusson have kept this tradition alive and responsive to developments in contemporary art.
Kiki Smith (American, b. Germany, 1954) works in a variety of media including sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing, and textile, investigating the human experience and humans’ relationship with nature. The design for her tapestry Seven Seas (designed 2016, woven April 11, 2017–October 2, 2023) is based on a print she made in 2012; working in tapestry allowed its translation to monumental scale. Seven Seas presents an apocalyptic vision of nature, woven in a restricted color palette with the exception of the large rock being pummeled by the elements. The weavers at les Gobelins used new techniques to translate Smith’s design, entwining warp threads together and using dyed weft threads that had been twisted more than usual to accentuate the difference between the colored rock and the surrounding monochromatic elements. The work, displayed for the first time in the exhibition, vividly attests to the continued vibrancy of the Mobilier national’s contemporary-tapestry program.
Recent years have witnessed a resurgence in attention to modern and contemporary tapestry, with renewed activity in exhibitions, publications, and gallery offerings. Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris is one of a few exhibitions in the United States over the past decade devoted to the topic, bringing new attention to compelling and engaging achievements in the medium.
PUBLICATION
This exhibition is accompanied by a 128-page illustrated catalogue of the same name published by the Clark and distributed by Yale University Press. This publication features an essay and catalogue entries by Kathleen Morris, exhibition curator and Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions and curator of decorative arts at the Clark Art Institute and a preface by Emmanual Pénicaut, director of collections at the Mobilier national, Paris.
RELATED EVENTS
OPENING LECTURE: WALL POWER! MODERN FRENCH TAPESTRY FROM THE MOBILIER NATIONAL, PARIS
December 14, 11 am
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
Exhibition curator Kathleen Morris, Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions and curator of decorative arts, introduces Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.
EXHIBITION TOUR: WALL POWER!
Sundays, January 5, 12, 19 & 26 and February 2, 9, 16 & 23, 11:15 am
Meet in the Clark Center lower level
Join a Clark educator for a guided tour of the exhibition Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris. Discover how the art of tapestry has evolved in France from the 1940s to today through the experimentation and collaboration of contemporary artists. Learn how artists, dyers, and weavers worked together to create these monumental wall hangings.
Free. Capacity is limited. Pick up a ticket at the Clark Center admissions desk, available on a first-come, first-served basis. Meet in the Clark Center lower level.
BETWEEN TRADITION AND EXPERIMENTATION: THE CONTEMPORARY CREATION OF TAPESTRY
January 26, 2 pm
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
The Mobilier national of France has supported crafts and creation since the seventeenth century. Since the 1930s, the national tapestry manufactories of Gobelins and Beauvais have been part of the Mobilier national, participating in the mid-twentieth century’s “renaissance” of tapestry. Since the 1960s, they have sought to bring together tapestry makers and artists, with projects specifically designed to be woven. Lucile Montagne, Chief Curator at the Mobilier national, presents a close look at this long tradition of the Gobelins and Beauvais factories, which remain faithful to the traditional technique on the loom while working with contemporary artists of all movements to create exciting new tapestries.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.
WOMEN OF THE FRENCH TAPESTRY REVIVAL: ARTISTS, DEALERS, WEAVERS
February 8, 2 pm
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
French tapestry weaving was traditionally an elite luxury craft practiced by men, who passed prestigious weaving positions down from father to son for generations. But as modernists began to revive French tapestry weaving in the twentieth century, women took on increasingly prominent roles in the field as artists, dealers, and weavers. This talk by Kay Wells explores how women worked in these and other roles to produce modern French tapestries, how they carved out new careers in this dramatically changing field, and how they transformed the look and feel of modern art.
Kay Wells serves as Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of American Art and Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the author of Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry between Paris and New York (Yale University Press, 2019).
Free. For accessibility questions, call 413 458 0524.
SCHOOL VACATION WEEK
February 17–21, All Day | Art-Making Activities February 18 & 19
During the Massachusetts public school system’s February vacation week, visit the Clark and enjoy the vibrancy of Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris. A drop-in weaving session is offered on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am–12 pm. After making a unique weaving to take home, attend a special tour offered on Tuesday and Thursday at 1 pm. This all-ages tour of Wall Power! explores the materials, processes, and histories of French tapestries. Throughout the week, pick up a Wall Power! gallery guide to learn more about the exhibition. Every day this week, children of all ages can also pick up a free Drawing Pad and set of colored pencils at the Clark Center admissions desk.
Free. Capacity for Wall Power! tours is limited; pick up a ticket at the Clark Center admissions desk, available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Family programs are generously supported by Allen & Company.
A CONVERSATION WITH KIKI SMITH
March 8, 2025, 2 PM
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
American artist Kiki Smith, whose large-scale tapestry "Seven Seas" is the latest work in the Wall Power! show, will join exhibition curator Kathleen Morris in a conversation about how Smith, who has worked in a wide range of materials over her career, became engaged in the medium of tapestry. Their talk will also explore Smith's long-standing interest in using printmaking to realize work in other media.
Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Kathleen Morris, Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions and curator of decorative arts.
Generous support for this exhibition is provided by George W. Ahl III, the Coby Foundation, and Robert D. Kraus. The exhibition catalogue is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel.
ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of some 300,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday, from September through June, and daily in July and August. Admission is free January through March and is $20 from April through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and the EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
Press contact: [email protected]