Jean Lurçat at Musée Rigaud, Perpignan: La terre, le feu, l’eau, l’air

The four elements of Jean Lurçat

By Ellen Turner Hall

A retrospective  of Jean Lurcat’s work is currently at the Musée Rigaud in Perpignan. “La terre, le feu, l’eau, l’air” emphasises the elemental , experimental, and  protean  nature of the artist’s journey.

Lurcat at Rigaud: Lurcat: La terre, le feu, l’eau, l’air

Jean Lurçat (1892-1966) started his artistic career as a painter,  later turning  his hand to designing tapestries and ceramics, pursuing the ideal of  making art  integral  to everyday life.

 

In his paintings  Lurçat  combines the banal with the surreal. A plain white table is engulfed by  a jungle profusion of leaves. A voluptuous bather dancing in the  sun creates a grotesque black shadow  on the sand.

A  meticulous preparatory sketch for a tapestry   illustrates  how Lurçat  adapted  his  method to the  demands of  the new medium. Beside a pencil drawing of each leaf  he has written the numbers of the thread colours to be used.

Lurcat at Rigaud: Lurcat: La terre, le feu, l’eau, l’air

In his monumental tapestry Apollo, les quatre éléments (1961)  Lurçat   fills the space with his personal symbols : sun, stars, fish, leaves, mermaids, and man to compose his vision of perfect harmony.

 

While human figures dominate the  four panels  of a  woven screen,   the lower sections depict an overflowing cornucopia, a desert landscape,  swimming fish and a galaxy among constellations. Here is life in all its abundance  and essential mystery.

Lurcat at Rigaud: Lurcat: La terre, le feu, l’eau, l’air

The largest section of the exhibition is devoted to the  decorative plates, vases and urns which Lurçat produced  during his regular visits to Perpignan’s famous pottery workshop at San Vicens.  His fish vase is a notable example of Lurçat’s mastery of balance and   proportion. On a grander scale, stand  the colossal figures he created on lava tiles for a building in Perpignan. One holds the moon to  his ear, the sun to his bare midriff, his  lower body draped in a  long blue  skirt of stars, the whole wreathed in leaves.  Lurçat’s vision of man as the center of all  creation.

 

The exhibition runs from 22 June to 29 December.

 


Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud
21 Rue Mailly, 66000 Perpignan
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Musée Rigaud Perpignan
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