Demisch Danant Honors Legendary Decorator with Exhibit, PARIS MATCH, Today

Among the highlights of Paris Match will be several major works by Ce?sar, including the Expansion Table (1977) and Expansion Lamp (1976), both in bronze. In these works, Ce?sar applied the nearly baroque approach of his famed Expansion sculptures to functional works of design. Small tabletop objects, including golden bronze ashtrays never exhibited outside of Paris, will also reveal Ce?sar's ability to engage function at a small scale on his own terms with objects that appear to hover between liquid and solid.

Also on view in Paris Match will be an exceptional, rare Plexiglas and brass gueridon by Francois Arnal, commissioned by Henri Samuel in 1969. This object compliments a smoked version of a Plexiglas console by Arnal that Samuel commissioned for his own apartment.

Philippe Hiquily is represented in the exhibition by a low table in steel (c. 1970) that was part of a group of metal furniture pieces Henri Samuel used in his clients' interiors and his own home. Also on view will be Guy de Rougemont's iconic Table Nuage (Cloud Table), commissioned by Samuel in 1971 and produced as a small edition with variations in Plexiglas and metal. The Table Nuage was the centerpiece of the living room in Samuel's Paris apartment.

The artists presented in Paris Match did not limit their explorations into furniture exclusively to collaborations with Henri Samuel. However, their significant contributions to design history are inextricably linked to Samuel's visionary patronage and daring taste. In juxtaposition with the exceptional historical pieces, antiques, and peerless color palettes of Samuel's legendary Parisian hotel particulier in rue Faubourg Saint-Honore?, these unusual objects came to exemplify the height of French style of the 1970s.

About the Artists

Known universally as simply Ce?sar, the artist Ce?sar Baldaccini (1921 -1998) was an internationally celebrated French artist who achieved acclaimed for his truly radical approach to sculpture in the years following World War II. Less known for his imaginative and expressive furniture designs, Ce?sar nevertheless applied the same passion for new materials and forms to his furniture and objects. Indeed, the artist considered his functional objects and jewelry to be sculptures - extensions of his art practice.

Francois Arnal (1924-2012) was a French painter associated with the Nouveaux Re?alistes and Art Informel. In 1969, Arnal established the artist collective Atelier A, a groundbreaking design-centered venture that sought to decompartmentalize creative expression. Artists such as Ce?sar and Guy de Rougemont were invited to create innovative design objects and furniture, uniting art with the functional aspects of design. Atelier A closed its doors in 1975, but inspired the later Italian design movements Alchimia and Superstudio.

Philippe Hiquily (1925-2013) was a French artist with ties to the Surrealists in the 1950s. Hiquily spent the first decade of his career creating abstract, figurative sculptures primarily in iron, brass, and aluminum. In the 1960s, he expanded his focus and began designing furniture as well, catching the eye of Henri Samuel in the late 1960s.

Guy de Rougemont (b. 1935) is a French painter and sculptor admired for his use of vibrant geometric motifs. In the 1970s Rougemont started designing functional pieces as an extension of his sculpture. Rougemont became increasingly interested in the possibility of endowing furniture with the experimental forms and volumes of sculpture, while maintaining some ambiguity of function. In 1971, Henri Samuel commissioned Rougemont to design the famous Cloud Table for his apartment, made from smoked Plexiglas and brass.