On the occasion of PAD Paris 2023, the Parisian fair for historic and contemporary collectible design, Anthony Vaccarello is calling on several galleries in the city to collaborate on a design-focused exhibition. Saint Laurent Rive Droite offers the public a selection of pieces by some of France’s best modernist exponents, including Jean-Michel Frank, the progenitor of Art Deco in France. The exposition offers a broad look at the artistic current, also involving other designers who mark the history, including Jacques Adnet and Jean Després, emphasizing the innovation and contemporary nature of this historical period. The artists capture the concept of modernity, characterized by linear geometric figures and careful use of materials, favoring aluminum, wood, and enameled glass. Jean-Michel Frank, the father of modern design, worked constantly with the primary goal of eliminating the superfluous from spaces and furnishings. His basic and linear philosophy is based on the concept of absolute harmony and minimalist elegance, disrupting the vision of the time and creating a true aesthetic revolution. His creations are distinguished by a strong minimalism and a refined absence of forms, assuming a fundamental role in the birth of a new style. Frank’s curated interiors are famous for the “six thousand shades of beige”, from the prominent use of wood and the only two shades he considered permissible, beige and white. After Yves Saint Laurent contributed to the designer’s great rediscovery, Anthony Vaccarello today celebrates his work, presenting a selection of iconic furnitures such as the “Cole Porter” armchair and the six-panel parchment screen.
The exhibition highlights the striking modernism and contemporality of Frank’s work, an undeniable genius.
The exhibition, open to the public at the Rive Droite stores in Paris and Los Angeles, presents a clear design point of view while maintaining the strong contemporary character that also characterizes the historic modernist period. Also on display alongside Frank’s work are two desks by Jacques Adnet, one in metal and leather from 1950, and the other in metal and copper-colored glass. The architect and designer is one of the key figures of French Modernism, always upholding throughout his career a forward-looking tradition. His style is influenced by functionalism, resulting in strongly constructed furniture devoid of any decoration: the forms are simple, the geometries incredibly elegant, and the materials sought-after and refined. His eye for innovation has led him to be always looking toward tomorrow, replacing traditionalism with a contemporary trend geared toward industrial production. Jean Després, on the other hand, contributed great novelty and transformation in the 1920s and 1930s, working in the fields of jewelry, silversmithing, and goldsmithery. Resolutely modern, the designer’s style is perfectly in tune with our times thanks to an inventive spirit and marked elegance, he has perfectly adapted to the progress of techniques, personally revolutionizing the world of fashion with harmonious lines and quality of execution. Anthony Vaccarello, through the selection of pieces, celebrates a current that in the world of design marked a renaissance, embracing innovation and modernity and giving rise to an aesthetic that still defines itself as contemporary.
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