nerable tradition of French tapestry weaving, which has provided adornments for palace walls since medieval times, is brought to contemporary life in a new exhibition at the Clark Art Institute. Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris marks the museum’s first foray into exhibiting tapestries, showcasing thirty-two artworks that span from the 1940s to the present day.
The exhibition draws from the celebrated collection of the Mobilier national, an institution whose origins can be traced back to 1604, when Henry IV established a royal furniture repository. Today the organization not only conserves France’s decorative arts heritage but actively supports traditional craftsmanship through its historic workshops, including the renowned Gobelins and Beauvais manufactories, and participates in contemporary collaborations such as the exhibition at the Clark.
Connoisseurs of twentieth-century decorative arts may be especially interested in the show’s focus on the revival of French tapestry in the 1940s. The ancient craft was facing extinction due to changing tastes and economic pressures. Saving it began with the French government commissioning three artists—Pierre Dubreuil, Marcel Gromaire, and Jean Lurçat—to collaborate with weavers in Aubusson, a commune in France with a long history of tapestry-making. Guided by Lurçat, these artists sparked a modernist reinvention of medieval techniques and design principles.
Masters of modern painting and architecture Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, and Le Corbusier were instrumental in this revival, and all have works featured in the exhibition. Their designs demonstrate how contemporary artists adapted their distinctive styles to the particular demands and possibilities of the tapestry medium. Wall Power! traces the evolution of the form through mid-century artists like Sonia Delaunay and Victor Vasarely, and its culmination in recent works by such contemporary artists as Kiki Smith.
The exhibition illuminates the painstaking process of tapestry creation, where artists, dyers, and weavers must collaborate closely to translate painted designs into woven form. Whether working on high-warp or low-warp looms, the weavers execute their craft from behind the tapestry, following to-scale designs while making crucial artistic decisions about thread density, color selection, and weaving techniques.
Wall Power! celebrates the artistic achievements of modern French tapestry while also highlighting the crucial role of the Mobilier national in preserving this centuries-old art form, and ensuring that it continues to evolve and thrive in the twenty-first century. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to examine monumental works that link centuries of French decorative arts tradition with contemporary artistic visions.
Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris • Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts • to March 9, 2025 • clarkart.edu
