THE DESIGN ACCORDING TO PIERRE PAULIN (1927-2009)

Don’t miss the major temporary exhibition at the Fabre Museum! It will be dedicated to Pierre Paulin.

A first major design exhibition at the Fabre Museum in Montpellier.

Born in July 1927 in Paris and passed away in Montpellier in June 2009, Pierre Paulin is among the greatest French designers of the 20th century, contributing to the history of the true birth of this discipline in the aftermath of World War II, in a country undergoing reconstruction. Today, his iconic creations, including the Mushroom Chair (1959), the Ribbon Chair (1966), and the Tongue Chair (1968), continue to embody modernity and a timeless future in the collective imagination.

It was during the so-called "Glorious Thirty" years, in a world experiencing unprecedented economic expansion, leading up to space exploration and the oil shock, that Pierre Paulin became a decorator and designer. Gifted with a powerful sense of observation, he drew inspiration from Nordic and American design magazines, initially designing furniture that met the comfort needs of the 1950s, before inventing more flexible forms that embraced and even anticipated the societal aspirations of the 1960s, those of the baby-boom generation and pop culture.

Published successively by Meuble TV, Thonet frères, and the Dutch company Artifort, Pierre Paulin's furniture quickly gained an identity in the living rooms of decorative arts and entered the collections of the MOMA in New York in 1968.

In 1970, chosen by Claude and Georges Pompidou, he was the first designer invited to rethink the apartments of the Élysée, embodying the modernity of French culture. Subsequently, he became involved through the ADSA company in industrial design and global design production: he designed products for large retailers and conceived projects for major public facilities.

In the 1980s, he rekindled his interest in the permanence of styles, traditional know-how, and limited edition pieces, in a relationship with nature that anticipates our current concerns. In 1992, he chose to settle with his wife Maïa in the heart of the Cévennes, on a plot of land that he would develop over several years, applying his design skills to architecture.

Pierre Paulin explored all the ways of being a designer over five decades. Visionary and demanding, this strong personality offers through his work, or his "work" as he preferred to say, a true journey into the era that shaped our century, transforming lifestyles and technologies.

Featuring all the major pieces of this unique personality, the exhibition shows how his exemplary journey illustrates and questions the richness of this plural and protean discipline, design, which Pierre Paulin always envisioned first and foremost as serving the public.

Open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 AM to 6 PM.

Find all practical information and plan your visit.