Jean Lurçat: Painted Works

Rosenberg & Co. is pleased to present Jean Lurçat: Painted Works, a solo exhibition dedicated to the artist’s paintings and works on paper from the interwar years.

Jean Lurçat’s artwork reflects the great range of aesthetics of the early and mid-twentieth century, unconfined by a specific school or doctrine. After the Second World War, the name Jean Lurçat dominates the history of twentieth-century tapestry—once a prized craft of Northern Europe, the tapestry industry had lost its distinctive characteristics and with it, its creative inspiration. With an immense oeuvre of woven works—the largest left by any tapestry designer—it is widely acknowledged that Lurçat rescued the neglected discipline of weaving tapestries.

Lurçat’s success as a tapestry designer, however, may have come to overshadow the painted works of his earlier career, despite the irrefutable originality of their style. Rosenberg & Co.’s solo exhibition and its accompanying catalogue offer a rare focus on Jean Lurçat’s works on paper and paintings, highlighting an often-overlooked aspect of his oeuvre.

The works of Jean Lurçat are unique, the result of a free spirit surrounded by the creative forces around him and yet singularly distinct, combining elements of Surrealism, Cubism, Modernism, and Classicism. His paintings and works on paper bear witness to the multiplicity of his inspiration and the strongly poetic nature of his oeuvre, across media—watercolor, oil and gouache—and through the recurring themes—his fascination with the Orient, desolate landscapes, and evocative scenes of ocean and shipwrecks—that continue to beguile viewers today.

Rosenberg & Co. welcomes you to this unusual and intriguing voyage of discovery of Jean Lurçat’s triumphant work.