Art: Renaissance in Wool

French Artist Jean Lurçat, 68, has more reason than most men to remember the Nazis, but he does not remember them simply because they burned his studio or because he lost his paratrooper son in action. The invaders had an insatiable greed for French tapestries, and when they had exhausted the reserves of traditional hangings in the ancient tapestry-weaving center of Aubusson, 235 miles south of Paris, the local weavers turned for new designs to a small group of former Paris artists turned Resistance fighters who were hiding in the town. Under the Nazis' noses, Lurçat wove a great crowing cock...