Up through February 22, admirers of 1960s and ’70s French design may observe a richly laid out exhibition of upholstered furniture at the Demisch Danant gallery in Greenwich Village, New York. Appropriately titled Color Diaries, the presentation provides an ample selection of works by such pioneers of French furniture design as Jean-Pierre Laporte, Pierre Paulin, Joseph-André Motte, Olivier Mourgue, and René-Jean Calliette.
Together, the saturated hues and curved, clean lines of their oeuvres harmonize with each other in the gallery’s ground floor space. Augmenting the interplay of color and form are textile works by American artist Sheila Hicks, which alternately punctuate and limn the abundant presentation.
Visitors are encouraged to interact with the miniature, painted-wood block sets that mirror the simplified forms and interchangeable hues of the furniture on display. While the influence of the Color Field Painters is evident in the designs’ emphasis on monochrome and texture, the exhibition highlights the effortlessly domesticated—yet no less vibrant—nature of such works as Motte’s Armchair, Model 770 (1958) or Mourgue’s Djinn Loungue Set (1964). Each embodies the holistic vision of an individual object yet integrates effortlessly with the comparable designs around them.
Read more about the show on our interiors and design website, aninteriormag.com.
