50 shades of white

It is all in white that the gallery Pascal Cuisinier will start its new school year in September 2017 at the time when the Biennale will be in full swing. Indeed, the gallery owner specialized in French design of the 1950s has selected 50 pieces from his collection, from the most famous to the most rare, to display all the possible shades of this so chic «non-colour».

If the French Fifties are often identified with the tubular black lacquered feet, there are a lot of exceptions and numerous furniture, seats or lights have a white version at the very beginning of the 1950s but also at the turning points of the1960s.

This non-colour is able to transform the object it covers thanks, at first, to the lacquer, such as for the feet of the firstfurniture by Philippon Lecoq, the one by A.R.P, and then the perforated sheet metal of the lights by Pierre Guariche orAlain Richard. But the white colour also covers furniture and low tables thanks to the laminate or the opalin glass, and it creates a subtle light with the introduction of Perspex in the light fixture since 1958.

Those materials of course grew old, which endows it today a patina and multiple shades from the cold white of marbles or tinted-glass, to the deep ivories of the Isogaine thread of the low chairs by André Monpoix or the lights by Pierre Guariche, creating a palette at the same time chic, subtle, sophisticated and even so, sober and without ostentation,as it is very often in the French creations of this era.

The gallery didn’t refrain from using the exceptional range of white of the contemporary fabric producer like Pierre Frey to upholster a beautiful collection of chairs, armchairs and sofa of the time. And the gallery won’t either refrain from displaying an all in white presentation, from floor to ceiling, only qualified by the lights from the light fixture collection.

Several remarkable pieces will be exhibited such as the six armchairs from the France cruise liner by Jacques Dumond in grey pearl lacquered metal and original white vinyl, a rare pair of «unicorn» sconces in moulded Perspex by Joseph-André Motte in 1959, an exceptional «fountain» floor lamp by Michel Mortier in 1972, an unprecedented pair of chairsSS1 by Pierre Guariche or a very beautiful desk by A.R.P made of ash and white lacquer iron to announce the exhibitionon this first French collective that will immediately follow this presentation since mid-October.