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.
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.
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.
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
Email
Website
