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On View> See Jean Prouvé pavilions at New York City's Gagosian Gallery through April 4

On View> See Jean Prouvé pavilions at New York City's Gagosian Gallery through April 4

Jean Prouvé rocks! He was a designer with a sharp, clear idea of what he hoped to achieve and the ability to clearly make his point with modern materials and simple plans. If you have an all-steel pavilion with large, inoperable panes of sheet glass then open the wall instead. In his 1956 temporary School of Villejuif, for example, he did just this with aluminum wall sections featuring round holes and a sheet-metal covering to open and close the wall.

We have been lucky in the past ten years to have various Prouvé prefabricated pavilions like his Maison Tropical exhibited here in New York City in pieces or in reconstruction, but now at the Gagosian Gallery you can see his designs in various forms and pieces. This will be the last weekend that they will be displayed at Gagosian (in association with Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris) at 555 West 24th Street in Manhattan.

The exhibit features two complete pavilions, several small models (one done by Richard Rogers), and smaller steel and aluminum walls and columns in conjunction with sculptures by John Chamberlain. It’s unclear why Prouvé has been paired with Chamberlain other than, as the gallery explained, “they harnessed the strength and suppleness of metal to a new potential in their respective fields.” In any event they really look great together so don’t miss this chance to see this exhibition.


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