Pierre Paulin (9 July 1927 - 13 June 2009) was a French furniture designer and interior designer. His uncle Georges Paulin was a part-time automobile designer and invented the mechanical retractible hardtop, who was later executed by the Nazis in 1941 as a hero of the French Resistance. After failing his Baccalauréat, Pierre trained to become a ceramist in Vallaurius on the French Rivera and then as a stone-carver in Burgundy. Soon after, he injured his right arm in a fight, ending his dreams as a sculptor but attend the Ecole Camondo in Paris. He had a stint with the Gascoin company in Le Havre where he gained an interest in Scandinavian and Japanese design. He was famed for his innovative work with Artifort in the 1960s and interior design in the 1970s. At the time, his chair designs were considered very modern and unique and kick-started the successes of his designs among the younger population. Even today, his pieces are still being made and are sought after at auctions. Born in Paris in 1927, he had a French father and a German-speaking Swiss mother.
He was as well the nephew of Georges Paulin who designed vehicles and invented the first mechanical retractible hardtop roof. Pierre Paulin had failed his Baccalauréat and moved on to train as a ceramist in Vallaurius and then as a stone-carver in Burgundy. Training as a sculptor, he would get into a fight that injured his right arm ending his dreams as a sculptor. He attend the Ecole Camondo in Paris afterwards. Relations with the Gascoin company, he would gain interest in Scandinavian and Japanese design which would influence his works later on. Pierre Paulin had his debut exhibition at the Salon des arts ménagers in 1953. Afterwards, his would appear on the cover of the magazine La Maison Française. A year later he would be employed by the Thonet company and began experimenting with stretching swimwear materials over traditionally made chairs.[1] Around 4 years later he would join the Maastricht-based Dutch manufacturers Artifort. Working at Artifort he would become famous worldwide with his Mushroom chair (1960).
At his time working for Artifort, Paulin quoted "It represented the first full expression of my abilities. I considered the manufacture of chairs to be rather primitive and I was trying to think up new processes" he said in 2008, he worked with foams and rubbers from Italy all worked around a light metallic frame. He would then use a new stretch material over the chair. His designs were focused on applied design rather than focusing on form with comfort as his chair's starting-point.[3] The combination of these materials made Paulin's chair designs rounder, and comfortable shapes that are still being used in chairs today. During the 1970s and 1980s he was invited to decorate and furnish several important places for important people. He redecorated the living, dining, smoking and exhibition rooms of the Elysée's private apartments for Pompidou in 1971. In 1983 he furnished the office of François Mitterrand.[1] In 1979 he launched his own consultancy and worked for Calor, Ericsson, Renault, Saviem, Tefal, Thomson and Airbus.
In 1994 he would retire to the Cévennes in southern France but would still continue on designing furniture.[1] He died on the 13th of June, 2009 in a hospital in Montpellier, France. Pierre Paulin was well known for designing chairs. He worked using foams and metallic frames covered with stretch materials covering, admired for "their clear lines, the sensual feel of their material or just simply for the way their shapes cradled the body." His designs were widely popular during their time and have influenced different designers such as Olivier Mourgue. Pierre Paulin influenced Olivier Mourgue's Djinn chairs that were featured in Stanley Kubrick's classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pierre Paulin was most famous for his innovative designs during the 1960s when he worked for Artifort. His most famed chair designs were the Mushroom chair (1959), Ribbon chair (1966) and Tongue chair (1968). Pierre Paulin was as well highly influential during the 1970s. He was invited by Mobilier national to decorate the private apartments of Georges Pompidou in the Élysée Palace (1971).
[3] He was then invited again in 1983 to furnish the office of François Mitterrand. He also worked redesigned the interiors of the Denon Wing of the Louvre Museum, the hall of Tapestries in the Paris City Hall, the Economic and Social Council assembly room, the Green Room of the state radio's Broadcasting House ("Maison de la Radio") the Nikko Hotel and other places. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l ^ a b c d e fBorn in Paris in 1927, French designer Pierre Paulin studied stone carving and clay modeling at the École Camondo
in Paris in the early 1950s. He is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Artifort, which began in 1958 and lasted approximately half a century. This relationship resulted in several iconic pieces, including his famed Mushroom Chair (1959), Ribbon Chair (1966), and Tongue Chair (1968). Notably, Paulin was commissioned by Le Mobilier National to decorate the private apartments of President George Pompidou at the Palais de L’Elysee in 1970, and again, in 1983, to furnish the office of Francois Mitterand.
Paulin’s work was influenced by his German roots, the early modernists, and, in particular, by American designers Charles and Ray Eames. His pieces are in the permanent collections of multiple esteemed institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Centre George Pompidou in Paris,
the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. Paulin died in Montpelier, France in 2009.Relaxed LivingroomBright Living RoomsHome Living RoomLiving SpacesCheese WarehouseWarehouse PhotosInterior HomestyleDutch InteriorBbv InspirationForwardPeek inside Alexander's home featuring the white F588 lounge chair by Geoffrey D. Harcourt for Artifort. See more at vtwonen.nl/binnenkijken. Photo by Holly Marder.Why is it that normally respectable folks, who wouldn't be caught dead wearing a fake Rolex, or carrying a fake Louis Vuitton, think it's fine to fill their houses with fake designer furniture?Apart from the dubious ethics involved in stealing some impoverished Danish designer's hard work, and supporting a Chinese sweatshop industry where toddlers are whipped until they make enough chair legs, isn't there something terribly desperate about wanting a house full of cheap rip-offs?
Most of these fakes are so built down to a price they they don't even begin to approximate the quality and attention to detail of the real thing. There's a reason why a real Eames lounge chair will set you back the best part of six grand, while a papier-mache and sticky-tape version can be had for less than $1000.Then there's the question of proportions. The copycat manufacturers can't ever seem to get it quite right; it's as if they failed geometry at high school. Sit in a faux Pierre Paulin orange slice chair and you might never climb out again without the help of a chiropractor. And if you think the real Barcelona chair is damn uncomfortable, wait until you try the one from Zhejiang; it's enough to give you sciatica just looking at it.But one of the main reasons I can't stand homes full of fakery, is they all seem to be right out of the same furniture-fakes-for-people-with-no-imagination catalogue. You can be sure, the only ''real'' designer object in the home will be the useless Alessi Juicy Salif citrus squeezer somebody once bought for a wedding gift.