Description
Don't miss the major temporary exhibition at the Musée Fabre! Dedicated to Pierre Paulin
A 1st major design exhibition at Montpellier's Fabre Museum
Pierre Paulin, who was born in Paris in July 1927 and died in Montpellier in June 2009, was one of the greatest French designers of the 20th century, contributing to the story of the true birth of this discipline in the aftermath of the Second World War, in a country in the throes of reconstruction. Today, his iconic creations, notably the Mushroom Chair (1959), Ribbon Chair (1966) and Tongue Chair (1968), continue to embody modernity and a timeless future in the collective imagination.
It was during these so-called "Glorious Thirty" years, in a world experiencing unprecedented economic expansion, through to the space conquest and the oil crisis, that Pierre Paulin became a decorator and designer. Gifted with a powerful gift for observation, he drew his sources from Nordic and American design magazines, and initially designed furniture in line with the comfort needs of the 50s, before inventing more flexible forms that embraced or even anticipated the societal aspirations of the 60s, those of the baby-boom generation and pop culture.
Successively published by Meuble TV, Thonet frères and the Dutch company Artifort, Pierre Paulin?s furniture quickly made a name for itself at household and decorative arts fairs, and entered the collections of MOMA in New York in 1968.
In 1970, chosen by Claude and Georges Pompidou, he was the first designer invited to redesign the apartments of the Élysée Palace, embodying the modernity of French culture. Subsequently, through his company ADSA, he became involved in industrial and global design: he designed products for the retail sector and conceived projects for major public facilities.
In the 1980s, he revived his interest in enduring styles, traditional know-how and limited edition pieces, in a relationship with nature that anticipates our current concerns. In 1992, he chose to settle with his wife Maïa in the heart of the Cévennes, on a plot of land that he would develop over several years, putting his design skills at the service of architecture.
In the space of five decades, Pierre Paulin has explored all the ways of being a designer. Visionary and demanding, this strong personality offers through his work - or his work as he preferred to say - a veritable voyage into the era that forged our century, overturning lifestyles and technologies.
Featuring all the major pieces by this unique personality, the exhibition shows how his exemplary career illustrates and questions the richness of this plural and protean discipline, design, which Pierre Paulin always thought of first and foremost as serving the public.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm.
