Mathieu Matégot, the tapestry as absolute

Naturalized French after the Second World War, Mathieu Matégot was born in 1910 in Budapest. During his career, the influence of these two cultures has brought to his work originality and artistic renewal in a changing society.

The School of Fine Arts in Budapest, cradled in the 1920s by the aesthetic contributions of Russian Constructivism, German Expressionism or the Bauhaus precepts, enabled Matégot to rub shoulders with icons of art history such as Vasarely.

The sensitive period between the two wars encouraged cultural exchanges in Europe. It is natural that in 1931 Matégot moved to Paris, the cradle of the roaring twenties. He was hired first as a decor designer at the Folies Bergères, then as a window dresser at Galeries Lafayette. It is very likely that the artist drew inspiration from the farandoles of colors, materials and styles of the 'department store', a symbol of modernity, to develop his so recognizable style.

Result : 39 614€

In 1933 he decided to create his own workshop where his first furniture was created. The Second World War, however, slowed down his creative drive, and the artist was imprisoned near Hamburg until the Liberation. Curious about the new materials in vogue, Mathieu Matégot went back to experimenting the material, in particular the perforated metal, at the origin of his most emblematic pieces. Nevertheless, a passion for painting encouraged him to discover more mediums. He devoted himself, among other things, to tapestry, and his encounter with Jean Lurçat, a figure in this discipline, enabled him to collaborate with famous houses such as Tabard workshops in Aubusson.

The artist was exhibited from 1952 in the gallery The Demeure, founded in 1950 by Denise Morel, who carefully applied to represent the textile art of the twentieth century. Also present in many international exhibitions such as the Salon of Decorative Artists, the International Exhibition of Tapestry Madrid or the Triennale of Milan where he enjoyed international visibility.

Result: 35 516 €

From 1959, Matégot stopped his production of furniture in order to devote himself essentially to the tapestry. He was able to respond to various orders including several for the state, but also in 1963 for the Maison de la Radio and the Drugstore Publicis. To conclude a rich artistic cycle, he inaugurated his last exhibition in 1971, still in the gallery La Demeure.

Famous mainly for his metal furniture, which followed Modernism and the functional needs of society, Mathieu Matégot however finished his career focused on a mainly contemplative art endowed with a certain lyricism opposed to the technological and societal changes of his time. He died in 2001 at the age of 90, after living through a century and responding to the practical and aesthetic demands of a changing society.


Mathieu Matégot gradually stops his creation of furniture and objects from 1959 to devote himself to the other passion of his life : the abstraction - often lyrical - which will guide him , thanks to his meeting with the master lissier Aubusson François Tabard, towards the world of tapestry.

Result : 6 830 €

Faithful to Denise Majorel and La Demeure, he quickly established himself as one of the main actors in an art that reached its peak in the 1960s.

The tapestry is a space of freedom which makes it possible to throw a bridge between two banks: that of a medieval time where the tapestry accompanied naturally its contemporaries and that flamboyant, dazzling, lyrical, the pictorial equivalent of FreeJazz: the abstract art.

The art of Mategot is an explosion, bright, primal, primal colors, threatened by darkness, a "black man" who sculpts the composition and whose light in return tries to "cross the wool. ".