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Jean Prouvé |
Prouvé the founder of the high-tech style is viewed as one of the most significant pioneers of furniture mass production, production of architectonic prefabricates and industrialization of the building industry. He began producing furniture of molded steel sheet metal in his first workshop in Nancy, which he opened in 1924. Metal and mainly steel then came to accompany him for his entire creative period. In 1930, Prouvé co-founded Union des Artistes Moderne (UAM) and, a year later, established his own company, Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, which bore countless furniture designs as well as the prefabricated parts first applied in Maison du Peuple in Clichy – a multifunctional building on which Jean Prouvé collaborated with Marcel Lods and Eugène Beaudouin. Its steel and glass construction was indeed revolutionary for the time of its origin and it aroused enormous response. The awareness of the exceptional character of the house fortunately lasts and since sheet metal strongly suffers from the changing Paris weather conditions, the building underwent a demanding reconstruction between 1995 and 2003. The steel shortage during the Second World War made Prouvé focus on manufacturing furniture and simple wooden prefab houses. After the war, in 1947, he established the spacious factory Maxéville where two hundred employees produced both furniture and small prefab houses and schools. Prouvé, however, left the factory after six years in result of his disputes with his associates. Before establishing his own consulting company in the field of architecture, he worked as a manager in the construction office Compagnie Industrielle de Matériel de Transport (CIMT) in Paris and was active as Professor at Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) between 1957 and 1970. As a member of the jury for the 1971 architectonic competition for the Paris Centre Pompidou, he largely contributed to the victory of the design by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Towards the end of his life, Prouvé returned to designing furniture while his main aim was to unify function, material and the necessary prerequisites for mass production. Jean Prouvé died in 1984 in Nancy. In 2002, Vitra began to collaborate with Prouvé’s family to re-introduce his furniture designs as, for example, the armchair “Cité”, tables “Compas” and Guéridon, and his chair “Standard”. Other Prouvé’s works for architecture include La Maison Tropicale, Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy, a gas station in Germany, and the Prouvé House in Nancy. Exhibitions: “Jean Prouvé”, Design Museum London, 7 December 2007 – 13 April 2008
Artworks of this author offered by Prague Art & Design
Jean Prouvé
* 1901 - 1984, Paris, France
Solo Exhibitions
2007 | Jean Prouvé, Design Museum London
