his October, the Fondation Louis Vuitton
is dedicating all of its 11 galleries, covering the four
floors of the Frank Gehry-designed building in Paris’
Bois de Boulogne, to the pioneering French architect
and designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999). Including
180 pieces of design and 180 artworks by 17 different
artists, drawn from the Archives Charlotte Perriand,
but also from private collectors, international museums
and the Italian furniture brand Cassina, the show
shines the spotlight on an exceptional woman who
defined an entirely new way of living, and narrates
the evolution from modern to contemporary society.
Reconstruction is the show’s modus operandi.
Exhibitions and interiors devised by Perriand have
been reassembled to her exact specifications. Her
groundbreaking tubular chrome furniture, created
alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, and
later, independently designed pieces in wood and
bamboo come to life in their original context. Perriand
liked to juxtapose her pieces with artwork from the
likes of Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Hans Hartung
and Alexander Calder, and these too have been
painstakingly sourced to recreate her intended displays.
The reconstructions start with Perriand’s Saint-
Sulpice apartment from 1927, followed by the 1929
Salon d’Automne, and La Maison du Jeune Homme,
shown at the Universal Exposition in Brussels in 1935.
A painting by Léger, commissioned by Perriand for
that project, was presumed lost, but curators tracked
it down in a private collection and have secured
it for the show. Further reproductions include the
Refuge Tonneau, a mountain shelter designed in 1938
with Jeanneret and since created by Cassina; rooms
for the Maison du Mexique and student housing units
for the Maison de la Tunisie in 1952; and the Maison
de Thé, made in 1993 for Unesco. Also present will be
her 1934 Maison au Bord de L’eau, reproduced in 2013
by Louis Vuitton for Design Miami, and now fittingly
displayed next to the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s
outdoor water features.
To illustrate the years Perriand spent living
in Japan, where she worked as the official advisor on
industrial design to the Japanese government, and
her dialogue with its culture, the show also includes
reproductions of her exhibitions in Tokyo: ‘Sélection,
Tradition, Création’ from 1941, and ‘Proposition
d’une Synthèse des Arts’, from 1955.
Perriand collaborated with Le Corbusier and
Jeanneret on the now-iconic chaise longue and the
‘Grand Confort’ armchair. These were presented to the
public at the 1929 Salon d’Automne, within a 90 sq m
model home that served as a manifesto for modern
living. According to Jean-Paul Claverie, art advisor to
the president at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the best
way to present these pieces was to remake the original
display entirely, including drawing room, bedroom,
bathroom and kitchen. To oversee this resuscitation,
the foundation called upon Arthur Rüegg, the architectand historian responsible for the recent restoration (^) »
T
ABOVE, THE 90 SQ M MODEL
APARTMENT AT THE SALON
D’AUTOMNE INCLUDED A
SMALL BEDROOM, FURNISHED
WITH A DAYBED, METAL
CABINET AND ‘LC8’ STOOL,
ALL RECREATED FOR THE
EXHIBITION BY CASSINA
RIGHT, A MULTIFUNCTIONAL
METAL RACK IN THE MODEL
APARTMENT’S KITCHEN, WHICH
CAN BE USED TO STORE FRUIT
AND VEGETABLES
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