Lurçat, Jean, Capricorn, 1959
1959
Tapestry
62 x 81 cm
Signed by the artist in ink on the reverse, numbered 1899/1/6
Suzanne Goubely Gatien éditeur
Aubusson
“No doubt for some, the Zodiac is a dense forest of facile, futile deceptions and lame symbolism. But the man who knows how to see and believes and loves to know finds in these strange figures, water, earth, vapors, minerals, these four sublimated or familiar corners where are inserted the trusts, the hopes, the seeds and the gestures of the man who sings in front of the sun, his eyes straight into the Light.”[1]
Since Antiquity, Capricorn has been embodied in a goat’s bust and a fish’s body. Being the first sign of the winter cycle, this explains the cold colors chosen by the artist to represent him. The luminescent shapes surrounding him are thought to be other stars inhabiting the universe.
[1] Manuscript by Jean Lurçat.
About the author
Jean Lurçat (1892-1966)
Lurçat’s work is marked by cubism and a form of metaphysical aesthetics – somewhere between de Chirico and surrealism – which were to form the ferment of his mature language. He gradually abandoned painting for the art of tapestry, of which he became a leading exponent. After the Second World War, Jean Lurçat contributed to the revival and modernization of tapestry.
