The one thing I want to remember after having seen the wonderful 
collection of tapestries, exhibited here, is the leading idea that — as it 
seems to me — has driven their brilliant maker. 
Behind the artist, true to his vocation, appears the man of progress, 
the initiator eager for new conquests, craving to adapt the old 
techniques to the requirements of today. 
Jean Lurgat was the fitst to recognize the promising future of tapestry, 
that we witness now, because he gave it back its essential roles: 
to meet the present wants of people, to take back its place in the 
middle of society, to combine the primary qualities of efficiency and 
greatness and to create in modern life fitting surroundings of o so 
much warmth! 
This exhibition is a brilliant and well-deserved homage to Lurgat's 
lifelong role of renovator, a role that he played with imparalleled 
brightness, and in which he untiringly kept up his efforts to 
propagate, always and everywhere, the knowledge about the 
techniques that, with his help, had come to rehabilitation and 
modernization. 
ER 
et 
And now, by the generosity and understanding of the Rothmans 
Foundation, everybody can see how much we all owe to Lurcat for 
his years of stubborn struggle, a fight that ended in the present, 
triumphant flowering of the art of tapestry in most countries. 
Let us hope that such an active patronage may find followers, in order 
to stimulate the flourishing of modern artistic research. 
SC 
AQ 
Pierre Laurent 
General Manager 
in charge of the cultural, scientific and technical Relations 
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.