TEFAF New York 2024
Park Avenue Armory
NYC Stand #340
May 10 – 14, 2024
May 9 by invitation only
Demisch Danant is proud to participate in the tenth edition of TEFAF New York, taking place May 10 through May 14 at the historic Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.
The gallery will showcase a wide selection of rare and important works from Sheila Hicks, Alain Jacquet, Vassil Ivanoff, Maria Pergay, Serge Mansau, Bernard Govin and more, featured alongside Michel Boyer’s famed Rothschild Desk at the exhibition’s center. Originally commissioned by Elie de Rothschild and designed for the Rothschild Bank on rue Laffitte in Paris, this highly influential piece – and the works that accompanied it for this landmarked commission – is widely regarded as a highlight of Boyer's career and a leading exemplar of French style in the 1970s.
Michel Boyer began his practice as a decorator and designer by specializing in office furniture, corporate offices, and banks, while employed by the architect Pierre Dufau. He designed contemporary furniture channeling the progressive postwar spirit and utilizing the materials of his era: stainless steel, laminate, fiberglass and lacquer. In 1965, Dufau entrusted Boyer to design the interiors for a building meant to temporarily house the Rothschild Bank. After revealing innovative designs for the temporary building, Boyer was commissioned to develop contemporary interiors for the final structure, which was designed by American architect Max Abramovitz, designer of Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The Rothschild Bank building was completed in 1970, setting a new standard for refined, contemporary French style.
Elegantly understated yet strikingly significant, the desk itself has a makeup of walnut, leather, and brushed stainless steel. Sleek curved steel and the designer's deft interplay of solids and voids make this desk an iconic example of the aesthetic that established Boyer as an influential figure in postwar European design. Boyer received many other significant commissions of the 1970s, including the Hotel PLM Saint-Jacques (1972), the French Embassy in Washington (1975) and that of Brasília (1975), for which he designed the lacquered steel and linen table lamp produced by Verre Lumiere also on view at TEFAF. He worked with fashion designers including Lanvin, Dior and Balmain, and some of his private clients included Elie de Rothschild, Liliane Bettencourt and Karim Aga Khan.
The exhibition will juxtapose the gallery’s historic collection alongside contemporary designs from prolific French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance and acclaimed American-born, Paris-based artist Sheila Hicks. Coincidentally, and as part of his collaboration with Boyer in 1970, Rothschild had also commissioned Hicks to make several architectural installations for the private salons in the bank. Also on display: sculptural ceramics by artist Vassil Ivanoff dating back to the early 1950s, multi-medium artworks by Eugène Leroy and Alain Jacquet, and lighting from Maurice Pré and Janette Laverrière.
Over the years, both as gallerists and collectors, Suzanne Demisch and Stéphane Danant have advocated for a humanistic and cultured approach to interiors, emphasizing the dialogues between pieces within a room and the stories they carry, as much as the individual value of each of them taken separately.
Visit Demisch Danant at TEFAF New York from May 10 to 14 at booth #340.