PARIS.- In parallel to the book launch of Living with Charlotte Perriand, co-written by François Laffanour and this years’ retrospective devoted to Charlotte Perriand at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in October 2019,
Galerie Downtown François Laffanour celebrates its 40 year anniversary with a Charlotte Perriand exhibition taking place from 26th September to 2nd November 2019.
‘‘All the exhibitions I have dedicated to Charlotte Perriand have only increased the pleasure and connection I have for her work. The serenity and strength I felt when I bought my first ‘‘gorged’’ table, continues to renew itself and amplify my conviction that these pieces of furniture are not only objects, but faithful companions and guardians of a very inspiring knowledge and wisdom.’’ says François Laffanour.
With this new exhibition, François Laffanour demonstrates once again Charlotte Perriand’s genius through her various creations, which are being presented as the interior of a collector, combining contemporary art with post-war design iconic pieces.
The power of the furniture with its minimal forms, Its subtlety inspired by her various travels and discoveries, seduced collectors all over the world. Fascinated by the work of this modern pioneering artist, François Laffanour has kept to himself this ambition to defend and share her work since his early years at the Paul Bert Serpette Market in 1979, up until today at the most important international fairs and at the gallery of the rue de Seine in Paris.
With the exhibition ‘‘Living with Charlotte Perriand’’, the Downtown Gallery once again demonstrates that her work fits perfectly into the world of contemporary art.
CHARLOTTE PERRIAND (1903 – 1999)
As a major figure in the 20th century interior design, Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) was a pioneer who, for 60 creative years, followed a line of political and ethical thinking that culminated in a form of dwelling adapted to modern human kind. On the strength of her «Bar sous le toit» (bar beneath the Roof), which was exhibited to acclaim in Salon d’Automne 1927, when she was a young 24-year-old graduate straight out of the Union Central des Arts Décoratifs, she joined the closed club of the French avant-garde.
She became part of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s team who entrusted her with the interior furbishment of villas built by the agency. In 1929 she played an active part in the foundation of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) chaired by Robert Mallet-Stevens. During the ten years in which she worked with Le Corbusier, she pursued her research into housing and furniture designed for the greatest possible number of people. She was interested in new materials like steel and glass, and in the new functional factors offered by progress to improve well-being in the home. With Fernand Léger she took part in the making of the Agricultural Pavilion at the 1937 World Fair, a showcase that helped her to develop the photomontage technique for getting her political ideas through. In 1940, she was officially nominated by the Japanese government as Industrial Art Consultant, and went to live in Japan. She was filled with enthusiasm for the modular principles of the local architecture, so akin to her own conceptions and designs. Back in France after World War II, from 1952 onward, she consolidated her ideas about furniture with Jean Prouvé, where they collaborated for several projects of furniture. Lastly, the huge Arcs en Savoie project, where she was in charge of the interior design and furnishing of the apartments, offered her a chance to apply her ideas about mass production.
Living with Charlotte Perriand is a reference book in which François Laffanour wanted to celebrate 40 years of work with Charlotte Perriand’s furniture collectors.
