The boundaries between art and weaving are intertwined in Area's proposal to Jules Pansu to create a tapestry based on the painting “Nature morte à la bouteille, à la sole et à l'aiguière” by Pablo Picasso. In close collaboration with the Picasso Foundation, in a project of extreme complexity, Jules Pansu reproduced the work with unparalleled precision and beauty, just as it had already done in the representation of the cushion based on the same painting. Available exclusively at Area until September, when it will be launched worldwide at Design Week in Paris.
An inescapable name in 20th century art, Pablo Picasso was a revolutionary artist who maintained an experimentalist and innovative spirit throughout his more than 92 years of life. Although he is best known as one of the great masters of painting, being one of the co-inventors of Cubism, he was also a sculptor, engraver, ceramicist, writer and stage designer, with a prolific body of art with more than 50,000 catalogued works.
This work of art is reinterpreted in the workshops of Jules Pansu in the north of France using the jacquard technique that allows complex patterns to be woven that may include up to several thousand warp threads, allowing the faithful reproduction of the shapes and colours of the original. The impeccable execution of this tapestry is a tribute both to the artist himself and to the mastery of his weavers.
For four generations, the family firm founded in 1878 by Jules Pansu has carried on the centuries-old tradition of Gobelins and Aubusson tapestries. Pioneers in the use of Joseph Marie Jacquard's mechanical loom, they demonstrate enviable continuity, reinventing and adapting over time.
Since 2012, the Jules Pansu workshops have been considered "Living Heritage" by the French State, a mark of recognition that distinguishes French companies with craft know-how and industrial excellence.