Musée Dom Robert et de la tapisserie du XXème siècle (Tapestry)

The Dom Robert and Twentieth Century Tapestry Museum opened since 2015, is housed at the heart of the Sorèze Abbey-school located on the Black Mountain in the south of the Tarn. It celebrates the abundant and exuberant work of tapestry artist Dom Robert (1907-1997) and his encounters with the works of other artists like Lurçat, Prassinos or Tourlière who helped revive the Aubusson tapestry tradition. The museum is integrated into the site of the Sorèze Abbey-school / Dom Robert Museum, run by the joint Union of the the Sorèze Abbey-school (in Occitan region, the Department of the Tarn and the Town of Sorèze) which offers visitors a tour of the historic college dating from the nineteenth century.

The museum was designed by the architect Susanna Ferrini and covers a surface of 1500m² in one of the restored wings of the building formerly the school’s infirmary. The tour allows visitors to follow step-by-step the creation of a work of tapestry from the designs to the finished work passing through the creation of the cartoon. The work of Dom Robert is thus put into a context of twentieth century creative decorative arts following on from the tradition pioneered by Aubusson.

To date, the museum’s collections are made up of :

• a collection of tapestries consisiting of 66 wall hangings by Dom Robert (the major part of his woven works) and 56 tapestries made by other artists.
• a graphic arts collection made up of around a hundred boxes of tapestries patterns and more than 2000 drawings, watercolors and lithographs.
• a decorative art collection linked to woven works by a number of artists (sculptures and ceramics)