Charlotte Perriand
A life dedicated to bringing design, function and form to the masses. Charlotte Perriand made it her mission and manifesto to establish a connection between art, interiors, architecture and the commercial market.
In a male-dominated industry, Charlotte used her work and ideas to push boundaries and ways of seeing that challenged her peers and gave her the tools to pave the way for her vision.
“It's not about today that we need to be thinking; it's about tomorrow. There is of course the need to make inexpensive products. New models have to be created for the masses. But I think there is also something beyond pret-a-porter. Say we no longer use techniques like weaving because of the expense. So do we do without it definitively? Why? There's no need. What is inexpensive because it is produced cheaply won't last … But when I talk to you about tomorrow — it will have to cost nothing, be made with new materials and new techniques. It will, of necessity, be made of things as they are.” — Charlotte Perriand
Charlotte Perriand in January 1991
In the early spring of 2020, just before the awful events of the Pandemic. I was very fortunate to visit Paris and attend the Charlotte Perriand retrospective at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. In 2021, just over a year later the Design Museum, London is showing the incredible work of Charlotte Perriand in a new Exhibition entitled ‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life’ and I thoroughly recommend a visit.
When I visited the Louis Vuitton Foundation in 2020, during Paris Design Week, I have to admit that my knowledge of Perriand was limited. Entering the vast Atrium, we were guided floor by floor through Periands world. Starting at the beginning and naturally ending at the end, Charlotte and her work came to life. It felt as though you had met her and then shadowed her life, as if you were there on her journey.
As you wandered through each space, objects and rooms were presented for you to get up close with. Placing yourself in spaces that once had people in was slightly haunting but also comforting. Sitting in the furniture she had designed and traveling through the rooms as if you yourself had once lived there.
Charlotte believed that form followed function, but she also was interested in how humble materials could be transformed into functional objects, naturally expressing their characteristics but providing a practical application in dwellings and spaces.
What I connected with the most during my time in the exhibition was a room that almost acted as a sketchbook. A space filled with ideas that portraited a period in her design focus, centred around the materials found along beaches and gathered on trips with friends.
In 1930, Perriand met Fernand Legér and they became close friends. In a time of unrest during the great depression and the rise of totalitarianism in Spain, Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union the artists turned to nature as an antidote to the accumulation of catastrophe happening at the time.
The pair drew endless inspiration from found objects collected along the beach and spent their time sketching and photographing organic forms and shapes.
“We called it our ‘art brut’…Léger, Pierre [Jeanneret] and I used to go the Normandy beaches…we would fill our backpacks with treasure: pebbles, bits of shoes, lumps of wood riddled with holes, horsehair brushes - all smoothed and ennobled by the sea” - Charlotte Perriand
I remember fondly, the process of collecting and foraging for objects as a child. For me, the process was an escape from anything else going on around me and a way to imagine other worlds or create a space where I could exist without interruption from the everyday. In current political, economic climates, I personally connect with the turning to nature in times on unrest and looking to simple, natural and untainted forms that provide comfort and solace when it can all seem to much.
The artist’s work took on new ways of seeing from their exploration into these natural shapes. Perriand moved away from the use of metal and began working with wood. A more affordable material that spoke to her interest with the natural world.
Her photos from this time were poetic and literal. Celebrating the forms and shapes and embracing these objects as integral ideas in their use within spaces. Connecting us back to nature and form in contrast to the spaces we might live.
One of my favourite spaces in the Perriant exhibition was the Maison du jeune homme. A space designed for the ‘young modern man’. Léger collaborated with Perriand, creating two works for the space.
Divided into two halves, the spaces consisted of a studio living space and a gym zone. Léger created a large sports inspired canvas for the gym space and a fresco which formed the backdrop to a collection of natural objects that punctuate the walls and desk space designed by Perriand. Design in slate, the proposed young man inhabiting the space could use chalk to draw and formulate ideas freely on the slate surfaces.
The combination of organic, found objects set inside the clean lines reminded me a little of school classrooms. The objects on display in science lessons, the chalkboard, and slate surfaces. The gym spaces conjured up my internal dread of sports at school and the feelings and memories combined created this very strange personal connection with a space that was calm, inviting but also alien in its masculine focus. But I knew I also enjoyed being in the space, It was jarring but exciting at the same time and I think about that space often.
As we moved around the rest of the exhibition, Charlotte’s other projects were brought to life through vignettes that showcased her interior architecture and design work for functional spaces. Such as the rooms she designed for student living, the family and Leisure resorts.
We were also invited to explore her relationship with art and her exploration into Japanese and Asian design. Cultimating in the incredible tea house Charlotte was invited to create in collaboration with Unesco.
“An ephemeral tea area where people could meditate and dream about a golden age, a place humming with cultural exchange as well as diversity and universality” - Charlotte Perriand
The perfect full stop to the exhibition. The tea house filled the entire room, with live bamboo flanked pathways and a fine mist. mimicking the humidity of the tea houses original location. As you entered the room you were greeted by a life size photo of Perriand in her later life, as if she was there looking at you, inviting you into the tea house.
It will always be an experience I will remember and cherish.
If you would like to experience Charlotte Perriand and learn more about her incredible work and outlook on life and design. I recommend popping along to the new exhibition at the Design Museum London, which is on until the 5th September 2021.