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refinement. There are notable exceptions however, and it is to them that we have chosen to devote this exhibition to be presented at the Château Dufresne. It seemed to us an important task to increase public awarness of this side of present-day textile production which focuses on traditional methods but which also aims at an artistic excellence that is genuinely avant-garde.

Some may question the validity of mounting an exhibition of this type. Why focus on textile creators as artists when the twentieth century has produced such a wealth of fabrics from the hands of great masters? Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Lurçat, members of the German Bauhaus, the Werkbund and the Austrian Wienerwerkstätte, Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, Mariano Fortuny and others come to mind. However, these names are all associated with the first half of the twentieth century in which the foundations of contemporary art were established. But what of the latter half of the century? Was the promise of the earlier teachers borne out?

The artists mentioned above fall into two groups. Those like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier who concentrated solely on the design and left the fabrication to others and those like Sonia Delaunay, Mariano Fortuny and the members of the Bauhaus who saw textile creation as a total process fulfilling a wide range of contemporary needs. It is to their modern - day successors that this exhibition is devoted and this approach that it wishes to promote.

A fully illustrated and documented catalogue in separate English and French versions will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. It will include essays written by experts in the field and will be supplemented by an introductory essay examining textile art in the west today.