Fondation Lurçat, Adagp Paris 2026
Fondation Lurçat, Adagp Paris 2026
It could be added to the list of the 7 wonders of the world and few have seen it in its entirety until now. But, to be in its presence you need first to travel for 10 hours to the center of France, in the town of Aubusson - population 3,600. No less than 3 hours by train and 2 hours by bus across the gentle countryside of the least populated French district, La Creuse, are required to reach the Cité de la Tapisserie. In its brand new wing, now hangs the extraordinary artwork called Le Chant du Monde - The Song of the World: a tapestry designed by Jean Lurçat.
Fondation Lurçat, Adagp Paris 2026
The work of 10 years, Le Chant du Monde was woven in the Aubusson manufacture between 1957 and 1966. Lurçat never saw the 10 tapestries completed. He died before all the panels had been woven. But now, 60 years later, the 10 the giant tapestries are presented together for the first time where it all began, in Aubusson.
Le Chant du Monde tells, over 350 m2 representing 80 meters long and 4.4 meters high, the story of humankind as Lurçat saw it, from Hiroshima to the exploration of space, in an explosion of extraordinary colors and shapes. From darkness to light. It starts with the first nuclear bomb, but it ends, despite everything else the world went through, with an explosion of Champagne bubbles. In between there are volcanoes, Noah’s Arch, stars and comets, extraordinary flowers and animals. The energy radiating from these 10 enormous tapestries is unique. “I quickly convinced myself that life, for whoever tries to live it honestly, is both sugar and salt, sweet and bittersweet, convulsive and tortuous,” said the artist. Le Chant du Monde is Lurçat’s testament about the future of humankind.
Fondation Lurçat, Adagp Paris 2026
The work starts with 4 tapestries of the series Destruction and War: La Bombe Atomique, L’Homme d’Hiroshima, La Fin de Tout. Then, 6 panels symbolize Hope and Peace: L’Homme en Gloire dans la Paix, L’Eau et le Feu, Le Grand Charnier, Champagne La Conquête de l’Espace, La Poésie, and, finally, Ornamentos Sagrados.
Jean Lurçat, born in 1892, was a painter and ceramist. He was close to all the artists of the era - Matisse, Picasso, Georges Braques, André Derain and often showed his work with theirs. In 1933 and 1934, in New York, he worked twice with George Balancine to design the costumes and the scenography of one of the great choreographer’s ballets.
In 1936, Lurçat starts turning towards the art of tapestry in a major way. In London, he showed his first tapestry, Les Illusions d’Icare, woven in the ateliers of the Manufacture des Gobelins, in Paris. But, in 1937, Jean Lurçat had a revelation. In Angers, he saw the tapestry of the Apocalypse, the biggest medieval tapestry that we have, made up of 6 panels each divided into 14 tableaux. In 1939, the artist went to Aubusson, which had been in decline for a long time, to revive the art of the tapestry.
Jean Lurçat, who had a rich and very colorful life, constantly traveling around the world, single handedly took the art of tapestries from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Le Chant du Monde shows the giant artist he was.
~ Jean-Sébastien Stehli
Jean Lurçat, Le Chant du Monde. Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie, Aubusson. Until November 1. cite-tapisserie.fr
Fondation Lurçat, Adagp Paris 2026
