Marie-Rose Lortet

In 1969, Marie-Rose Lortet was encouraged by Dubuffet, who acquired some of her works and expressed his enthusiasm for her “small knittings.” Very early on, Lortet, who grew up watching her mother and grandmother knit, broke free from the utilitarian aspect of knitting to paint pictures in yarn. Lortet knits stories and gives them poetic or funny titles, with an eternal youth. She does not make preparatory drawings, nor have a canvas, allowing the work to spontaneously come into being. “Knitting lets the mind and the imagination take the time to travel and create pictures”, she says, “my yarn is my palette; I combine colors like a painter.” Bursting with creativity, Lortet might start and finish a work in a single go or, on the contrary, enjoy watching it come alive over a period of months. In fact, the artist has never completely finished the four series she goes back to whenever it strikes her fancy: Territoires de Laine, Les Masques, Architectures de Fil, and Miniatures.

Marie-Rose Lortet’s work is often presented in solo and collective exhibitions in institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, Art Brut Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland, Musée de Vernon, France, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, Angers.

Courtesy of Marie Finaz Gallery