36INSIGHTIL MERCANTE modernspring 2007

THE ARTIST ON THE CARPET “In my youth I did not

take crafts or applied

arts seriously… I was

convinced that any kind

of contact with the

commercial or industrial

world was a threat of

corruption for Great Art.

I began to change my

mind after visiting

Matisse in his studio

on Boulevard du

Montparnasse in April

1948. We were sitting in

his big sitting room

flooded with spring light filtering through the tops of the

plane trees on the boulevard, making the colours of a

huge tapestry hung on one wall glow with joy. It was a

surprise for me to see how this kind of applied art

conserved the qualities of Matisse’s art intact and could

transmit sensations and intense emotion.I asked Matisse

who produced these tapestries and he explained that he

and others were working on tapestries for the Gobelins

textile factory… On his suggestion I finally visited the

factory… and found myself in a completely new world:

an exhilarating discovery. The extraordinary collection of

tapestries and, above all, the whole range of samples of

coloured wool… made a deep impression on me, an

impression that has stayed with me to this day.

Later… I happened to see the world’s first known

carpet, found in a Pazyryk tomb in Siberia… This marked

the beginning of my interest in this aspect of oriental

art… Over the centuries in Persia, Anatolia and the Cauc

asus, carpet weaving has produced many great works of

art, and millions of decorative versions of the same basic

model, in a variety of different styles. For those nomadic

peoples, the carpet is the heart of the home – something

that separates man from the earth, from harsh reality,

something that causes them to meditate and to dream.

For the yellow-eyed shepherds of Baluchistan in the

desert’s blinding light, their black carpets are a substitute

for refreshing shade. Freud’s studio… was completely

lined with Shirvan, Bukhara and sumakh carpets. Through

subconscious perception, the mandalas in the designs

had a sedative effect on patients.Often, when I feel I can’t

go on, I sit and let my eyes wander over a sumakh carpet.

After a while it is as if another day is born, with a rhythm

all my own. Now I understand what a lot of many modern

artists’ iconography – Kandinsky, Klee, Brauner, Masson,

Mondrian – owes to Oriental art, and particularly to that

of the carpet.” Piero Dorazio

Above: Vassili, Piero

Dorazio, 1989

Facing page:

Above:Interior showing

Improntecarpet, Art

Museum Collections,

Anghi, 2006

Below:Simboli, Anghi

The results of this multifaceted artistic

experiment are more than mere carpets – they

are vibrant works of art that mix eastern and

western, old and new forms of art to fabulous

effect. Despite being unmistakably painterly,

they sit just as well on a floor as on a wall. The

multi-coloured, Persian-style borders pay a

debt to the weaver’s art. Dorazio’s rugs were

‘a great curiosity’ when they went on show at

the prestigious Arte Fiera Bologna and in

several other art galleries at the time. But,

Meglioranzi realised, conservative Italians were

not yet ready to embrace the art carpet. The

limited edition rugs with their certificates

signed by Dorazio were put into storage to

await better times. With the current craving

for modernity, and the artist’s death in 2005,
modernspring 2007

INSIGHTIL MERCANTE 37

that time would finally appear to have arrived.

Other Artep projects have included taking

artist and architect Ugo La Pietra to the

Moroccan Maghreb to produce new themes

in traditional Berber and Maghrebi style. These

days Meglioranzi commissions local artist

Anghì to design carpets imitating the styles of

Kandinsky, Mondrian, Mirò and Picasso – but

these have none of the passion of the earlier

projects. As Meglioranzi says: “They are not

carpets as art, but carpets as interpretations.”

But his enthusiasm for mixing mediums

continues to know no bounds. One of the

most interesting of his recent collaborations

is with architect Daniela Cavallo who has

unearthed designs for church floors by the 18th

century architect Luigi Trezza (1752-1823). The

geometric designs were intended to be created

in various hues of marble, but Meglioranzi

has had them woven into rugs of astonishing

modernity with bold three-dimensional optical

effects that recall 1960s Op Art.

The latest thing is a computer programme

that allows clients to see how their room will

look with carpets in a variety of colourways.

Rainbow rugs can be ordered in a choice of

1,200 softly mutating colours and the hand

knotted result delivered in three months. “This

way you don’t have to keep a huge amount

of stock,” beams Meglioranzi, although it is

not something that seems to have bothered

him until now. “You can’t take carpets with

you when you die. Nor money. But the people

you leave behind will be happier with money.”

‘The carpets are vibrant works of art that mix eastern and western, old and new forms of art to fabulous effect’