Lurçat, Jean

Jean Lurçat, (born July 1, 1892, Bruyères, Fr.—died Jan. 6, 1966, Saint-Paul, Fr.), French painter and designer who is frequently called the most instrumental figure in reviving the art of designing and weaving tapestries in the 20th century.

Although his first tapestries were executed and exhibited in 1917, it was not until 1936 that Lurçat turned from being primarily a painter to designing tapestries. In 1939 he and the painters Toussaint Dubreuil and Marcel Gromaire went to Aubusson, a French town historically associated with tapestry weaving since at least the 16th century, and established a centre for the making of modern tapestries in cooperation with the master weaver François Tabard. Among the most notable of the more than 1,000 tapestries Lurçat designed are the “Four Seasons” (1940), the “Apocalypse Tapestry” (1948; in the Church of Notre-Dame de Toute-Grâce, Plateau d’Assy, département of Haute-Savoie, France), and “The Song of the World” (1957–64). Lurçat also did set and costume designs for the theatre, ceramics, book illustrations, and lithographs and wrote poetry, as well as books on tapestry.