NEW YORK.- The Sonnabend Gallery reunites with curators Patrick Seguin and Jacques Lacoste to present the first important retrospective exhibition on the oeuvre of the seminal 20th Century designer Jean Royère (1902-1981).

The exhibition will present some 100 pieces (furniture and lighting) that retrace the career of one of the most innovative designs of the 20th Century. From among the selection to be exhibited: an exceptional bureau in fine straw marquetry, a rare “Flaque” low table, a “visiteur du soir” model settee, the emblematic “Ours Polaire” sofa, the “Starlette” bed, and a plethora of lighting fixtures, such the “Persan,” the “Eiffel Tower,” and the “Mushroom.”

Jean Royère made his career debut in 1933 with the fitting-out of the café-restaurant “Le Carlton” on the Champs-Elysées in Paris . The project met with immediate success, and Royère quickly became one of the regular participants of the large Parisian design shows of the time, such as the Salon d’Automne (Autumn Salon) or the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs (Artistic Decorators’ Salon). Royère’s innovative fresh, and liberal style distanced him from the conventionalism of his colleagues. He expressed a masterful command of the interior spaces he designed, as if he had an innate sense of decoration, where comfort does not alienate a richness of material and where a fanciful wistfulness is expressed through innovative shapes and vivid colors. Even before World War II, Royère appropriated the sinuous forms that prefigure the “free-form shapes” characteristic of the 1950s.

Royère went on to command an international clientele and even opened agencies in the Near-East and in South and Latin America . King Farouk of Egypt , King Hussein of Jordan and the Shah of Iran, all commissioned Royère with important projects. In 1972, Jean Royère retired from the profession, and spent his time between France and the United States . In 1980, he definitively left France for the States, where he passed away on May 14th, 1981, in Pennsylvania .

Patrick Seguin and Jacques Lacoste have bestowed acclaimed architect and designer India Mahdavi with the schematic design of the exhibition. Mahdavi will transform the minimalist gallery space into an “abstraction of a Royère world”— using elements of color and incorporating carpet, curtains, and wallpaper of “funky” fabrics and patterns—all inspired by the Royère aesthetic.

Says Mahdavi, “Unlike the more austere designs of his contemporaries, Royère brought great humor to his work. We wanted to celebrate this fun, playful, eclectic spirit.”

Based in Paris , Mahdavi is known for her diversity of international projects—including La Rinascente department store in Milan , John Frieda Salon in London , On Rivington and APT in New York , Townhouse Hotel in Miami , as well as private residences. She has also produced furniture and specialty designs, including collaborations with Ruinart and Bernardaud, and Baccarat. Mahdavi has partnered with Seguin on numerous occasions, designing exhibition spaces for the gallery at venues such as Art Basel.

The Galerie Patrick Seguin specializes in 20th Century, French modernist furniture and design by architects and designers such as Prouvé, Perriand, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, Jouve, Mouille, Noll. The Galerie Jacques Lacoste, involved in an elaborated and methodic study on the “creators” of the 1950’s, accords a symbolically unique place to the work of Jean Royère, which reflects a poetic universe ruled by an overwhelming harmony.

The Sonnabend Gallery, specializing in contemporary painting, sculpture, and photography, has long dedicated itself to promoting and discovering germane artists including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Gilbert and George, and Jeff Koons.

In 2003, Sonnabend invited Galerie Patrick Seguin to curate a monumental show on Jean Prouvé, and then in 2006 the two galleries came together again to present the never-before-exhibited furniture of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.