Design Now

NEW LOOK AT THE GRANDE DAME

Right up there with the male design legends—especially Le Corbusier, her decade-long collaborator—Charlotte Perriand was an avant-gardiste in more than the furniture designs that are hitting record prices in auctions and galleries today. From 1927, when the 24-year-old prodigy designed her metal-and-glass “Bar under the Roof” living room, until her death in 1999, she imagined a new lifestyle for the 20th century that her life very nearly spanned.

Now, with the exhibit Charlotte Perriand, From Photography to Design, the Petit Palais—the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris—turns the spotlight on her lifelong passion for photography and the role it played in her creations. Monumental photomontages, some with political intent like La Grande Misère de Paris depicting miserable Parisian living conditions, served as decors.

In contrast to Le Corbusier’s spare habitat, conceived as “a machine for living,” Perriand’s photographs present a natural environment of open spaces, mountains and beaches, the humble lifestyle of country peasants and the found objects that directly influenced the simple forms and authentic materials in her designs.

Fish skeletons inspired her Chaise Ombre and the Banquette Tokyo; a sea-swirled stone on a beach, a forest tree stump and a flint from a Savoy mountain valley were transformed into wooden coffee table tops; the simple pillars of a building under construction became her famous room-divider bookcase. Her snapshots of a passenger’s derrière on a boat railing led to an ample swiveling armchair; and a friend reclining on top of a wall sparked the 1938 Chaise Longue Basculante.

The show’s 380 photographs and 70 pieces of furniture are displayed among the museum’s permanent collections, where Perriand’s 20th-century works contrast with the museum’s 18th-century furniture and Hector Guimard’s Art Nouveau dining room. A separate gallery highlights Modernist elements from the designer’s apartment on the rue Saint Sulpice, never before shown in public.

Petit Palais, Ave Winston Churchill, Paris 8th. Apr 7–Sept 18, 2011. website

OLD AND NEW

Nothing goes together better than venerable savoir-faire and imaginative new design. Take the storied past of Pouenat, in Moulins in central France, a firm that has been making wrought iron banisters, gates, doors and furniture since 1880. Its works, in styles ranging from the 12th to the 20th centuries, have graced such prestigious venues as the Château de Versailles and the Plaza Athénée hotel in Paris, Parisian couture houses Dior and Balmain, and the ocean liner France.

Then add to the Pouenat know-how the imaginative input of bright contemporary designers. Fifth-generation Henri Pouenat, who studied with wrought iron master Gilbert Poillerat, has done just that, launching a new gallery in Saint Germain des Prés to show it all off. Among the most intriguing new models: Thomas Boog’s irresistible Sailor Stool made of polished chrome and nautical rope; Tristan Auer’s sleek leather- sheathed Valmont desk—or dressing table—with platinum steel or bronze legs; Nicolas Aubagnac’s Olympe, a medieval torchère turned into a modern sconce; and Damien Langlois-Meurinne’s Hello Sunshine mirrored sphere ceiling light.

Pouenat, 22 bis passage Dauphine, Paris 6th, website

In similar fashion, Jean-Jacques Mazé took the upmarket leather seating expertise of his former company, injected the design talent of Christian Ghion and launched his Neology collections. Ghion’s first offering, the pale gray leather Stone sofa, inspired by a smooth pebble from a Zen garden, raced to best-seller status. His latest, Newton, is a whopping serpentine sofa nearly ten feet long and three feet deep, aptly subtitled Canapé Panoramique. Covered in Technicolor-bright orange wool, “Newton” also announces Neology’s new collaboration with Danish fabric specialist Gabriel, adding a textile line to the leather choices.

Mazé, 78 blvd Beaumarchais, Paris 11th, website

TALENTS À LA CARTE

Even after hours of trawling the crowded aisles of the horrendously huge Maison et Objet trade fair, the svelte simplicity, à la Jean Prouvé, of a red-lacquered birch table and chair called Arsène caught the eye on the Talents à la Carte stand. The French duo responsible for it, designer Guillaume Delvigne and architect Vincent Eschalier, had an equally Prouvé-esque objective: to find a mass retail distributor for their Hong Kong-manufactured table and chairs, which are shipped flat in home-assembly kits.

The French collaborators met while working with London-and-Paris-based Australian design star Marc Newson. Together, they have also designed an art bookshop for top Paris gallery owner Emmanuel Perrotin; on his own, Delvigne has done limited editions for Tools Galerie in Paris and a bar for Ricard distillers, while Eschalier is project chief for Newson’s currently stalled London hotel project, in collaboration with architect Sebastien Segers, geared toward the London Olympics. www.guillaumedelvigne.com; www.vincenteschalier.com

Also in the Talents section was another remarkable duo, Amaury Poudray and Rémi Bouhaniche, showing their USIN-e custom designs. Their innovative Triomphe table has a superlight top made of eight layers of veneer—seven oak and one wengé—on hardwood legs. The table and its matching chairs are made by master cabinetmaker Jérôme Vigné (whose company is called Jerhome) using only tension and glue—no nails or screws. Other light-hearted USIN-e objects include Air 3, a metal and glass aquarium, and Papa, a colorful fiber- or horsehair-coiffed stool. website

TABLE TOPPING

To celebrate the 170th birthday of Baccarat’s superstar Harcourt crystal pattern, designer Philippe Starck and his artist daughter Ara collaborated on a champagne tribute. Instead of a board, their game of jeu de dames, or checkers, is played on Ara’s painted silk scarf with Harcourt champagne flutes as pieces—with clear playing against Starck’s signature black.

The numbered but unlimited edition has four flutes and a scarf; the limited edition comes with six clear and six black signed flutes with a signed silk square. Sounds like fun, especially if the glasses are kept filled.  Baccarat, 11 pl de la Madeleine, Paris 8th, website

A rejoinder comes from rival cristallerie Saint-Louis, with Lanternes Magiques by designer Marie-Christine Dorner. Beveled crystal coupes, vases and chandeliers come in clear, amber or Néodyme, a silver-white metal tint that changes from blue in natural or white light to a mauve violet in artificial or candle light. Cristallerie Saint Louis, 13 rue Royale, Paris 8th, 01.40.17.01.74. website

Limoges porcelain manufacturer Bernardaud’s new dinner service, Euro Tropiques, is as exotic as its name. At first glance, the dazzling patterns seem to represent lush floral blooms or jeweled compositions. But look closer and up pop the signature motifs of the stuffed-toy, wire and other whimsical chairs designed by the Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana. Colorful collages of miniature blue dolphins swirl in circles, teddy bears tumble with furry lions, plush little crocodiles, puppies, pandas and some pretty scary serpents frolic on backgrounds depicting other Campana creations. Bernardaud, 11 rue Royale, Paris 8th, website

Legendary Lalique has moved into 21st-century chic with its stunning Manhattan collection, a tribute to the Art Deco architecture of 1920s and 1930s New York. Geometric designs of vases, boxes, XXL perfume decanters and other objects have smooth, satiny finishes of crystal and black enamel; black crystal; hand-applied platinum; or crystal and porcelain to evoke famous Manhattan skyline icons like the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center. Lalique, 11 rue Royale, Paris 8th, website

 

Originally published in the April 2011 issue of France Today.