PARIS.- On 16th May 2018, Artcurtial’s design department, world leader in the speciality will host an auction of 118 lots dominated by a superb set of contemporary designs sourced from several private collections including pieces by Martin Szekely, Marc Newson, Ron Arad and Jasper Morisson.

The essential chapter dedicated to 1950’s French creations will include a Jean Prouvé trapeze table (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000 /$360,000 – 600,000) and an exceptional Charlotte Perriand cloud book shelf in a unique size.

It will be preceded by a tribute to the « Mouvement Moderne » which revolutionised furniture from the last century with original editions of Marcel Breuer or Mies van der Rohe pieces dating from the 1920’s-1930’s.

The auction will also present radical Italian design developed in Florence in the 1960’s with prestigious main protagonists Superstudio, Remo Butti…

«Beside Design classics, the auction will hold numerous discoveries: the commissioned Charlotte Perriand book shelf which has remained in the same family in the South of France until now, or the relatively undocumented but riveting story of radical Italian design of the 1960’s.» --Emmanuel Bérard, director Design Department, Artcurial

French design in the 1950's
The event of the auction on 16th May is without contest the presentation of the Nuage book shelf by Charlotte Perriand, seen for the first time on the art market. As it has remained in the same family near Marseille for nearly 60 years, its provenance is remarkable and very rare (estimate €120,000 – 160,000 / $145,000 – 190,000).

The story is original: in the summer of 1960, a French couple recently returning from Morocco build a villa in France and seek to decorate in a contemporary style. A cousin, student at the Arts Déco talks the couple into creating a «Charlotte Perriand book shelf». In September 1960, the special commission is sent to the designer who creates a teak and black and grey aluminium stud shelf. It is exceptionally large by its size, over 5 m long and by its energy and design.

Also from Charlotte Perriand and from the Lazare Frendzel collection, an important table Forme Libre will be presented with an estimate of €80,000 – 120,000 € / $96,000 – 145,000. Most of the attention will be focused on centre table Trapèze by Jean Prouvé (estimate : €300,000 – 500,000 /$360,000 – 600,000). Created by the French designer in 1954 for the dining room of the Cité universitaire Jean-Zay in Antony, the table was acquired by a Parisian collector in the 1990’s. The table’s unusual silhouette, sculptural legs and aerodynamic profile demonsrtrates Jean Prouvé’s constructive imagination.

A rare and important lamp post "Air France Afrique" also by Jean Prouvé (estimate €100,000 – 150,000/ 125 000 – 180 000 $) will also be auctioned.

Masters of contemporary design
The auction will include several beautiful pieces of contemporary design issuing from private collections, such as the Blanche table by Martin Szekely, created in 2007 (estimate: €60,000 – 80,000 / $72,000 – 96,000). Another table, by designer Ron Arad Ping-Pong table is estimated €65,000 – 85,000/ $78,000 – 102,000. Snapshots of the time of its creation shows the designer using the table for a game of ping-pong between friends.

From Australian designer Marc Newson, a Black Hole Chop Top table from 2004 (estimate: €150,000 – 250,000/ $180,000 – 300,000 $) demonstrates his design mastery applied to aluminium, his material of predilection.

The chrome tube, the hallmark of modern furniture
The creation of design pieces using a chrome metal tube marked the dawn of modern furniture. Both industrial and aesthetic, the use of the tube spreads as early as 1925 in particular with Marcel Breuer’s creations. The auction will offer several creations from the end of the 1920’s and early 1930’s: a pair of chairs mod.B01-1932 (Estimate €3,000 – 4,000 / $3,600 – 4,800) from 1932, and markedly a rare set of five mod. tables B10 (estimate: €9,000 - 11 000 / $10,800 – 13,200) from 1927.

An iconic armchair MR534 from 1932 by Mies Van Rohe will also be auctioned (estimate: €3,000 – 4,000/ $3,500 – 4,900). The German architect also adopts the use of the tube in 1927 with his famous chairs, following in the footsteps of Breuer.

Radical Itaalian design luminaries
The final chapter of the auction will be dedicated to pieces from the radical design movement.

At Corbusier’s death in the summer of 1965, a great shift was felt in architectural creation, generational change and the atomisation of creative centres, up till then concentrated in several European capitals, including Paris. London, Vienna or Florence, where the Faculty of Architecture becomes the epicentre of a reaction against the academicism of a style of which the master has just disappear, all gain in momentum. Grouped together as "radicals", these paper architects and designers find for the most part in the design of objects -and in particular of lamps- a territory adapted to the expression of their futuristic poetry: the mod.Programma lamp, in brushed metal created by Gianfranco Fini in 1970 (estimate €15,000 – 25,000 / $18,000 - 30,000) or the mod. G999 lamp in black lacquered metal by Giuseppe Ravasio

Admiring the sophisticated techniques of each of the pieces included in the set, we have a better understanding of the short duration of the period, considering the prohibitive costs involved in the quality of the materials used and the precision required in building these utopic luminaries.