From 1 to 5 December, on the occasion of Design Miami/ 2010, the Galerie Patrick Seguin is pleased to present a booth entirely dedicated to Jean Royère (1902-1981), designed by India Mahdavi.
In order to create a booth befitting Royère and his design legacy, Patrick Seguin approached Paris-based architect and designer India Madhavi, who has worked with the gallery on Design Miami/ presentations in the past and designed the gallery’s 2008 Royère exhibition at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York.
Madhavi’s design concept for the exhibition is derived and inspired by the work itself. She has said: “the highly distinctive range of colors, the treatment of the walls—with paint and naive-pattern Svenskt fabrics—and organically-shaped carpets are all informed by Royère’s unique design language. The environment is appropriate to the work and provides the visitor with a richer way of experiencing and appreciating Royère.“
Among other pieces on display, visitors will see Jean Royère’s Ours Polaire. Created in 1949, this sofa and armchairs are made of wool textile on a wooden frame and feet. Photographed above, the set just calls out for visitors to take a seat. Royère’s Sphère Table (made of gilt wrought iron and black marble) and Table, 1954-55 (made of straw marquetery and brass) will also stun with their sheer elegance.
Jean Royère (1902-1981)
In 1931, Jean Royère is 29 years old and relinquishes a safe position in an import-export company to become a decorator. From 1931 through 1933 he engrosses himself in the guild-like Faubourg Saint-Antoine neighborhood to assimilate the rudiments of the trade. He works as an apprentice in a furniture workshop to learn the different stages of production, fabrication, and commercialization. In 1933, Royère’s career as a decorator starts with the lay-out of the café-restaurant “Le Carlton” on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. This project meets immediate success, and Royère becomes one of the regular participants of the great 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 and fresh liberal style differs from the conventionalism of his colleagues and their “dictums”. Royère shows a masterful control of the interior spaces he designs, as if he had a natural sense of decoration, where comfort does not exclude the richness of the material and where a fanciful wistfulness is expressed through innovative shapes and vivid colors. Even before World War II, Royère seizes the sinuous forms that will prefigure the “free-form shapes”, characteristic of the 1950’s. Despite the fact that he is based in Paris, where the majority of his projects are realized, Royère has many international clients and opens several agencies in the Near East and in South America. King Farouk of Egypt, King Hussein of Jordan and the Shah of Iran, clients who commission Royère with important projects. In 1972, Royère retires from the profession, and spends his time between France and the US. In 1980, he leaves France permanently for the States, where he passes away on May 14th, 1981, in Pennsylvania. The originality of his style, his inherent refinement, and the poetry of his touch establish Jean Royère among the pantheon of great decorators of the 20th Century.
India Mahdavi
Architect and designer, India Mahdavi founded her studio in Paris in 1999 and opened her show room in 2003. She continues to explore different territories of furniture, interior and exhibition design as well as architecture. Each of her projects tell a story, revealing with every site their unique identity, for instance, le Cafe Germain in Paris, the Monte Carlo Beach in Monaco, the Coburg Bar and Hélène Darroze restaurant in the Connaught Hotel in London, the Condesa DF Hotel in Mexico, as well as private residences in Australia, Spain, London and Paris. « The place itself is for me the starting point of a story, of a project. Each story is different, each project is unique, and everything happens for a first time. »
Inspired by nomadic culture and strong contrasts of size, colors and materials, Mahdavi conceived her parisian showroom, hidden in a quiet street in the VII arrondissement, like a breath of fresh air, an abstraction of her own universe, with pieces of her designed furniture, mixed with pieces by other designers (Jean-Pierre Khazem, Marteen Baas, Norman Cherner). She also creates numerous collections for companies such as Artecnica, Bernardaud or Ruinart, for whom she created the Champagne spoon for Ruinart in 2006.
Awarded Gold Woman of the Year 2006 by the magazine Atmosphères.and Designer of the Year 2004 by Maison&Objet, India Mahdavi’s creations are immediately recognizable by a mix of menly sensuality and womanly elegance.
Galerie Patrick Seguin
Occupying a 300 sqm (3200 sq ft) space in Paris's Bastille neighborhood since 1989, Patrick Seguin has brought the talents of French interior designers such as Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret, Jean Royère and Le Corbusier into the international spotlight. Its founder's expertise has led for the gallery to become consultant for exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, MoMA in New York, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil-am-Rhein, the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, and the Musée des Beaux Arts in Nancy, France. The quality of the works selected by Patrick Seguin and their meticulous presentations have resulted in unique exhibitions in the design field: the Jean Prouvé retrospective at Sonnabend Gallery in New York in 2003; the Charlotte Perriand-Jean Prouvé exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles in 2004; the Jean Prouvé exhibition in Seoul and Tokyo in 2005, the exhibition of Pierre Jeanneret's Chandigarh furniture in 2006; and Jean Royère exhibition in 2008, both at Sonnabend Gallery.
Present at all the major international fairs, the Galerie Patrick Seguin has presented 1950s design at the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris, the Biennale des Antiquaires in Monaco, FIAC in Paris, DesignMiami and DesignMiami Basel. Today the work of Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret, Jean Royère and Le Corbusier have been recognized as milestones in the history of 20th-century design. Following the Depression of the 1930s, the war and the Occupation of France, the 1950s represent a kind of renaissance marked by quality and cultural ferment, due in part to government support of French crafts on the international scene, and also to technical and scientific innovations.
Furniture is henceforth shaped by interior spaces, developing the notion of an "art of living" or "harmonious environment". This creative rationalization spill over into the repertoire of architects and interior designers such as Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, Perriand, Prouvé and Royère, whose work played a major part in the blossoming of French furniture at that time.
