Design Now

Brilliantly Goude

When France’s Wizard of Oz—Jean-Paul Goude—steps out from behind the backstage curtain, it’s always to thunderous applause. The artist, photographer, filmmaker, art director, creator of ingenious advertising campaigns and choreographer of spectacular live events is being celebrated with a first Paris retrospective, Goudmalion, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (until March 18). When Goude gets going, the action is fast-forward. The show opens with elements of his most extravagant creation, the July 14, 1989 Bicentennial parade in Paris celebrating the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The show starts at the entrance, where one of 30 giant mechanical dolls that twirled down the Champs-Elysées stands with her vast skirt cut away to display Goude’s cleverly devised mechanics. Stretching almost the entire length of the museum’s grand nave, the gigantic steam-spouting locomotive that led the festivities is flanked by video screens replaying the big event, showing that when it rains—and snows—on Goude’s parades, it’s part of his plan. Excerpts—with English commentary—show the British contingent marching in a downpour, thanks to Paris Fire Department hoses, while the Russians were powdered with artificial snow.

Goude’s art installations are arranged with the same signature panache: A live model swathed in evening gown and pearls glides mysteriously around the exhibition, while two busts of his iconic muse, Jamaican-American singer Grace Jones, indulge in a dramatic face-off. Other galleries trace Goude’s career from childhood drawings of Indians through his years as art director of Esquire (featuring his oil-on-photo painting of Chairman Mao breasting the waves of the Yangtze River with a rubber Donald Duckie) to such witty advertising-clip gems as a be-feathered Vanessa Paradis swinging in a birdcage for Chanel’s Coco perfume and the irresistible adventures of the Kodakettes, mischievous kids clad in red-and-white stripes, for Kodak, that brought smiles from both parents and children visiting the show on a recent Sunday afternoon. Bravo, Monsieur Goude! Your show is a delight. www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr

Striking a new chord

The Manufacture Pleyel has been making connoisseur pianos since 1807—one of its earliest clients was Frédéric Chopin. Later such famous Art Nouveau and Art Deco designers as Jacques Majorelle and Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann were brought in to design frames; more recently the company has collaborated with contemporary designers including Andrée Putman. Now Pleyel has decided to exploit its state-of-the-art savoir-faire in woodworking, lacquer and veneer craftsmanship by launching a contemporary furniture collection. American-in-Paris decorator Hilton McConnico was one of the first to step up to the challenge, designing a Pleyel sofa and armchair finished in bands of matte and brilliant lacquer, also available in birch plywood and varnished Makassar ebony. The rounded backs of the sofa and chair echo a piano’s curves, and comfort is assured by cushions covered in leather, velvet or silk taffeta. Paris-based designer Alice Etcaetera’s Harmonie et Contraste oval dining and coffee tables are made of solid, smoothly rounded or oval natural olive ash with a contrasting black lacquer central strip and curved black lacquer supports. Her wavy Art Deco-style folding screen features a central panel of brilliant black lacquer between two panels of olive ash. Hotel architect and designer Philippe Maidenberg’s line of Wonderful Archie medium-high stools has a suitably musical inspiration, derived from the stage stool he invented for saxophonist Archie Shepp. Produced in a 99-piece limited edition, it comes in mahogany or birch plywood with solid beech legs in a choice of colors and finishes. www.pleyel.fr

Mixed media

On vacation in Provence, French fabric king Patrick Frey discovered the ceramic artistry of Vincent Buffile in the Aix-en-Provence studio the ceramicist shares with his wife Monique. Their meeting led to mutual enthusiasm for a creative collaboration. Buffile’s “ink-splattered” abstract ceramic designs gave birth to the new black-and-white Pierre Frey fabric called Léo, while such graphic Frey fabric motifs as Ondes, Théssalie, Concorde and Rameaux, along with Bakou from the printed Frey handbag and luggage accessory range, inspired a collection of Buffile’s decorative ceramic plates, vases and cachepots. Pierre Frey, 2 bis rue de Furstenberg, 01.43.26.82.61. www.pierrefrey.com; www.buffile-ceramiste.com

Flowers and fireflies

When winter comes can spring be far behind? Artist and designer Joy de Rohan-Chabot’s latest Lucioles (Fireflies) collection in wood, bronze and glass provides a whimsical foretaste of balmy days in a magical garden. Inspired by her poetic vision of nature, Rohan-Chabot’s huge iridescent bronze butterfly spreads its wings to support a cloud-shaped glass tabletop while delicately painted blooms scramble up the back of an elegant bronze chair and tiny gilded birds perch on the twigs of tree branches that support a three-tier glass console. True to the collection’s title, small gilded bronze trees are hung with beautiful butterflies and glass candle jars that twinkle like fireflies when lighted at night. Each bronze design, made in collaboration with the Fusion foundry in Auvergne, is unique, but similar sculptural works may be ordered on commission. www.joyderohanchabot.com; www.galeriematignon.com

Frosted, fragile and fun

Faridha El Gabsi and Jean-Claude Cardiet, a former perfume flacon designer, have pledged their 22 22 Edition Design production company to champion humor and poetry in “beautiful objects that combine function and fiction”, recounting stories with a twist to add mystery—and a dash of surrealism—to everyday objects. Their six-object first collection tells some eclectic tales, from a frosted-glass Biblio lamp in the shape of luminous books that slips in among the real ones on the shelf to a chaise longue strung with pearlized plastic balls. Still stylish, but more mainstream, an updated cane-patterned chair is “designed like a construction puzzle” and made of laser-cut metal. “As beautiful and fragile as an art object” is Cardiet’s description of the porcelain Ciel & Terre (Sky & Earth) bud vase or candleholder that reverses into a basket—the product of a newly developed Limoges porcelain technique. The most fun: the hot-red enameled porcelain knifeholder emblazoned with the female-silhouette target of a circus knife-thrower that is bound to brighten up the most minimalist kitchen. www.2222editiondesign.fr

Originally published in the January 2012 issue of France Today