exhibition Sélections with Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Derain and Raoul Dufy; the event was organised in New York by the Valentine Gallery. Being aligned with the far left, from then on he often mixed his political opinions with his art. In 1933, he was living in New York. He created the decoration and the costumes for the Jardin Public (Public Garden), a ballet by George Balanchine. 1933 also saw his first tapestry sewn at Aubusson, following the new and revolutionary technique that he developed. Lurçat and the revival of French tapestry In order to fully appreciate and understand the works of Jean Lurçat, one must view them in the context of the history of tapestry, in particular, the downfall of its existence during the rise of the Renaissance. It was during this time that tapestry was somewhat re-invented, where by traditional techniques were misplaced in the likening of tapestry to paintings by artists of the likes of Raphael. Jean Lurçat is largely responsible for its revival in the 20th century when he redefined the importance of designing tapestry in a way that embraced the integrity of authentic tapestry from the Middle Ages, inspiring artists like Picasso to acquire the skills to design for tapestry. It was in the 15th century that tapestry, in its authentic form, was first recorded as being practiced. By this time the technique had been mastered which gives us no reference as to when it was first put into practice. What we do know is that during the rise of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century, the art of tapestry was alienated by a demand for tapestry to imitate painting as closely as possible. This allowed for traditional techniques, like hachure and hatching, to fall by the wayside allowing the art of tapestry to experience a kind of identity crisis. Techniques like shape-building dominated this new presence, creating an aesthetic dissimilar to that of traditional tapestry in that it achieved shading and implied dimension by building shapes as opposed to blending shapes and colour with the above mentioned techniques. This, in essence, created a new art form; a derivative of tapestry, effectively superseding it. Western European tapestry history spans the foundation of the Gobelins manufactory 1662 to the beginning of the third republic of France in 1871. It is in this time period where the subservience to painting is observed as being the dominant characteristic of