Pierre Paulin: Life and Work

Playfully rebuffing the ordered restraint of midcentury design, French avant-garde designer and architect Pierre Paulin (1927–2009) envisioned elegant jet-set airport lounges, perfume bottles for Courrèges, and unforgettable pop-era pieces like the Orange Slice chair, the shell-like Oyster chair, and the Tongue—a low, undulating lounge chair. Paulin’s signature innovation was to wrap his pieces in colorful stretch jersey, softening them and concealing their steel-and-wood interiors.

In their casual, kinetic sprawl, his chairs not only offered an invitation to relax and recline; they also took the temperature of Paris in the late 1960s. Fascinated by the possibilities of new materials, Paulin was both modernist and traditionalist, a designer who cared as much about designing everyday objects like fans, razors, and fondue pots as he did about outfitting the private apartments of French presidents Pompidou and Mitterrand. This vibrantly illustrated book draws on unseen archival holdings for a wealth of vivid drawings, models, and photographs to reveal the restless energy of this midcentury icon, whose works are finding new popularity today.