Michel Mortier

This gifted designer and architect passed away on May 22th 2015. One year after, the gallery Pascal Cuisinier pays tribute to him and his work by organizing a retrospective exhibition.

Michel Mortier is not widely known, but he probably is one of the best French creators nevertheless. Very precocious, he was 19 when he graduated from School of Arts Applied to Industry. He occupied severalprestigious challenging positions such as the Studium of Le Louvre’s commercial gallery, then the decoration department of « Le bon Marché » in Brussels. At age 24, he took the lead of Marcel Gascoin’s ARHEC (Ra- tional Agency for Housing and Multifamily residential) until 1954. He met Pierre Guariche and Joseph AndréMotte with whom he created A. R. P. (Plastic research studio), one of the very first experiences of collectivesignature in design area in France.

This was the start of a meteoric career where he became artistic director of la Maison Française 55, designerfor the best French producers (Steiner for seating, Disderot for light fixtures, Meubles et Fonction for furni- ture), writer for magazines, graphic designer and teacher in almost every French prestigious schools such asENSAD, Camondo, School for Applied arts, or the brand new school for product design: ESAG Penninghen). He also taught in Montreal, Canada.

With his own agency HEIM (Housing, Industrial aesthetic and furnishings) he devoted himself to interior design and obtained the title of architect in 1977 to design beautiful contemporary and minimalistic individual homes.
This very discreet and uncompromising man received all the awards a designer could dream of : the Silver medal at the Triennale in Milan (he was 26), Gold Medal (he was 29) and at the age of 38, he won the prize René Gabriel.

Over the last past 10 years, Gallery Pascal Cuisinier represents his work, as well as the work of Pierre Gua- riche, Pierre Paulin and Joseph André Motte.

About 20 of the most emblematic and rare pieces of furniture and light fixture was presented during the show. Among them, a beautiful set of his most famous seating model edited by Steiner, called « Teckel »,but also the extremely rare Triennale armchair. The gallery also showed an exceptional set of light fixtures produced by Disderot in 1950s and Verre Lumières in 1970s.