Modern Tapestry

Boccara Gallery has one of the most prestigious collections of modern tapestry worldwide, which completes the collection of antique tapestry and is tantamount in its quality and in the rarity of the pieces. Boccara presents a selection of the most beautiful tapestries of the most important artists of the 20th century: Alexander Calder, Fernand Léger, Vassily Kandinsky, Sonia Delaunay, Victor Vasarely, Le Corbusier, Mathieu Matégot, Jean Lurçat, Emile Gilioli, Vincent Guignebert etc.

At the beginning of the 20th century, tapestry underwent a new boom thanks to the work of Jean Lurçat, who created a movement around him. He revived Aubusson’s workshops and renewed tapestry for modern purposes. It is even possible to talk about a school founded by Jean Lurçat. From that moment on, many artists – including Jean Lurçat, Mathieu Matégot, Sonia Delaunay, Victor Vasarely, Alexander Calder, Fernand Léger and Wassily Kandinsky- found an interest in tapestry and started to create works specially designed for this medium.

After the war, under the impetus of several galleries, tapestries became even more popular as reflecting the French style of living. The greatest decorators in the world used them and showed them off in incredible settings.

Modern tapestry has definitely found its place in the decorative arts. Boccara Gallery has been a pioneer in exhibiting the pieces in its galleries and salons, often combining them with antique tapestries, which puts an even greater emphasis on modern tapestries. Today we are re-discovering artists who have long remained in the shadows having no chance to be showcased.

Boccara Gallery is happy to participate in the renewal of such a noble art. Today you can discover these tapestries in salons such as Masterpiece in London, PAD Paris, Fine Art Asia, Art Los Angeles, etc. All tapestries are sold with their certificates of origin and provenance

René Fumeron

Fumeron conceived his first humorous drawings (he made more than 500) in the 1940s, in collaboration with the Pinton workshop. He was then solicited on numerous occasions by the State before participating in the decoration of the liner "France". His work, initially figurative and influenced by Lurçat, then turned to abstraction, before returning to a style characterized by figurative and realistic colored representations from the 1980s.

Jean Picart Le Doux

Without specialized professional training, he started out in bookbinding and publishing, then turned to advertising and graphic arts and published his first works in 1935. His first tapestry cartoons date from 1943 after winning the Grand Prix for theatrical posters at the Salon de l'Imagerie. He met Jean Lurçat and, with Marc Saint-Saëns, gathered around him in 1947 for the Association of tapestry painters.

Bernard Cathelin

Bernard Cathelin was born in Paris in 1919. He was very attached to his home country and specially his region, the Drôme. Former student of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris, he has always kept his own style and way of painting, mainly oils on canvas, using brushes or knives. His palettes, extremely rich in color and material, have been influenced by the countries where he has stayed. First of all, the Drôme, his childhood land, but also Mexico, India and then, halfway through his life, Japan, a country that inspired the architecture of the artist's works until his last creations.

Émile Gilioli

The Boccara Gallery has an important collection of Emile Gilioli’s sculptures and tapestries. Among the tapestries signed by the artist we can recognize the classical motifs that distinguish the art of this great and talented man. In these works strong colours are predominant as well as geometric motifs that create a visual balance.

Détail de la tapisserie les Vierges Folles de Marc Saint-Saens

Marc Saint-Saëns

Boccara Gallery is pleased to count among its wide range of artists Marc Saint-Saëns, one of the most influential artists associated with the revival of French tapestry in the 1940s. His emblematic work “Les Vierges Folles” (The Foolish Virgins) marks Saint-Saëns’ true beginnings in the art of tapestry.

Jean Lurçat

Today the Boccara Gallery presents a remarkable collection of the artist's work, who propagated an epic, poetic, symbolic and humanistic vision of the 20th century through his works and who has become a key figure in the history of tapestry. All tapestries of Jean Lurçat are handmade, and every detail is carefully studied. The Boccara Gallery is pleased to offer a panorama of works by Jean Lurçat, an artist who recently began to be discovered for his undeniable talent and innovative works.

Vincent Guignebert

Vincent Guignebert In 1937, Vincent Guignebert was a student at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, then he entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he was a student in René Jaudon's workshop around 1938-1939 at the same time as Robert Wogensky (1919), who was to become his friend. In 1939, he exhibited at the Petit Palais in Paris, a tapestry cardboard noticed by Jean Lurçat who offered him to come and work in his studio to initiate him to this art. The Second World War interrupted his studies in 19402.

Mathieu Matégot

Boccara Gallery is pleased to present some of the most significant works by Mathieu Matégot, who was a pioneer of contemporary design. Mathieu Matégot, born in Hungary, was one of the most important internationally acclaimed French artists and designers in the mid 20th century, particularly in textile design. He was a man of many artistic skills, creating designs for furniture, stage sets, clothing and most importantly, tapestry.

Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay (1885 -1979) was a multi-disciplinary abstract artist and key figure in the Parisian avant-garde scene. A French artist of Russian descent, her painting, her work in fashion, theatrical design, the applied arts, including textile and tapestry design, defines her broad legacy in the 20th century art and culture. The Boccara Gallery has one of the most remarkable collections of tapestries by Sonia Delaunay. Didier Marien was one of the first dealers to collect the textile works of this artist. Currently, the Boccara collection includes some of the artist's most emblematic and monumental works.

Victor Vasarely

The Boccara Gallery is pleased to count among the artists in its collection Victor Vasarely, an internationally renowned artist whose optically complex and illusionistic paintings have conferred the status of "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement.

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder is an internationally renowned American artist, who first made a name for himself as a sculptor and then as a painter. Later in life he discovered an enthusiasm for tapestry and became one of the central figures in the movement of rebirth of tapestry in 1930-50s.

Vassily Kandinsky

The Boccara Gallery presents a unique tapestry by Wassily Kandinsky. Didier Marien, the director of the Boccara Gallery has carried out an important research in the Tabard workshop in Aubusson and is pleased to present the exclusive presentation of the tapestry “Sur Fond Noir”, a unique work signed and dated by this incredible Russian artist.

Dom Robert

Dom Robert, pseudonym Guy de Chaunac-Lanzac, was a Benedictine monk, upholsterer, French painter and ceramicist. The woven work of Dom Robert includes nearly one hundred and fifty original cartoons, mostly woven in Aubusson.

Claude Dodane

Claude Dodane was an important artist and Director of School of Fine Art in Besançon. He was a family member of the Dodane family, a famous watchmaking family.

Le Corbusier

The Boccara Gallery is pleased to include in its collection Le Corbusier (1887-1965) - a highly influential architect, designer, painter, urban planner and writer, a.k.a. “Father of Modernism”. Le Corbusier believed in rationally designed spaces with modern, open interiors and emphasized light. His integral approach to design and architecture dispersed his artistic interest to all domains of applied art, including textiles.

René Perrot

Boccara Gallery is pleased to present “The Great Waterfall”, a major work of René Perrot. This unique tapestry is one of the largest and most beautiful Aubusson tapestries. It is currently preserved in perfect condition in the Boccara collection.

Fernand Léger

A significant part of the Boccara collection is dedicated to the works of Fernand Léger. Didier Marien has been interested in the works of this artist for a long time. The way Léger dealt with modern subjects was far ahead of his time and paved the way for contemporary art, which is why the Boccara gallery is so proud to be presenting this artist.

André Borderie

André Borderie is a mid-century artist known for his geometric exercises with ceramics, with large wall murals and tapestry, juxtaposing planes and shapes, in rhythms of quiet earth tones or highly saturated oranges and golds.