Suzanne Demisch photographed with a
Pierre Paulin Mushroom Chair, 1960
DEMISCH DANANT OPENS A NEW PLATFORM TO CELEBRATE THE UNSUNG HEROES OF FRENCH DESIGN
Recent discoveries will comprise the gallery's inaugural exhibition, "Made in France," which gathers more than two dozen rare objects that trace the period that is the gallery's raison d'être–along with the decade-long history of Demisch Danant itself. The text of the accompanying catalog "tells the stories of how we discovered these objects, what the circumstances were, and why we are interested in the designers we represent."
Those designers include Étienne Fermigier, Maria Pergay and Joseph-André Motte, among others. "French 1970s design seems to be in people's minds" at the moment, Demisch explains. Specifically, "there's a lot of attention on Pierre Paulin," who was the subject of an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris this summer. His work will be inclueded in "Made in France."
"The market has developed substantially" in recent years, Demisch observes. "When we started looking at the '70s in the 1990s, there was very little scholarship; we needed to attribute designs to their creators. There were no primary resources." Today, "more people appreciate the pleasure of living with these pieces. It's an exercise in scholarship and it's aesthetic."
by Tracy Zwick
