Dominique (founded in 1922)
The House of interior and design Dominique is founded in 1922 by André Domin and Marcel Genevrière. Comfortable and well-balanced, furniture signed by Dominique is veneered with fine woods such as sycamore maple, amaranth or Macassar mahogany. If decoration is added, it is made of thin copper incrustations and scales, of light sticks of gilded bronze, or sometimes subtle reliefs finely carved. As a result Dominique’s sets are indubitably modern, yet are never afraid to exhibit reminders of a more classic taste when adorned by tapestry by Helen Henry or Raoul Dufy, in doing so recalling the ‘tapissier’ style.
As soon as the year of its foundation in 1922, Dominique is recognized as a house of avant-garde designers by exhibiting a furniture set showing geometric and faceted forms recalling cubism at the Autumn Salon and again at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. In 1929, Domin and Genevrière settle avenue Kléber. During this period they begin to use metal for both utilitarian and aesthetic reasons. The year 1933 marks the beginning of their collaboration with the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. They thus work to equip several Ocean liners like the Normandie, inside which they are entrusted with the interior design of one of the four ‘Grand luxe’ apartments. In the mean time they open their own pavilion at the 1935 Word’s fair and get involved in the design of the ones of the Merchant navy, of the Normandie, and of private architecture at the 1937 Art and Techniques International Exhibition. After World War II, they are also commissioned by the Mobilier National to decorate, among others, the Élysée Palace.
As in most of design houses, André Domin and Marcel Genevrière do not execute themselves the interior, furniture and luminaires carrying their names. Their projects, in the form of nature-size sketches, are assigned to talented craftsmen that carefully realize them. The firm would keep on activities under the management of Alain Domin, André’s son, until 1970.
Jacques Adnet (1900 – 1984)
Graduated from the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Jacques Adnet begins his career under the aegis of Maurice Dufrêne, starting assisting him in 1922 in the Maîtrise of the Galeries Lafayette. Adnet is one of the very firsts ‘ensembliers-décorateurs’ (set designer-decorator) and exhibits his work from 1923 onward in various salons, such as the Paris Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, designing for the occasion, together with his twin brother Jean, functional furniture with strong and sober lines, using noble materials.
In 1928, Jacques Adnet is assigned with the direction of the Compagnie des Arts Français at the Galeries Lafayette. Prone to collaboration, he surrounds himself with artists, now widely renown, sharing his aesthetic considerations, counting with painters (Dufy, Léger, Chagall), ceramists (Besnard, Lenoble), coppersmiths (Linossier), goldsmiths, tapestry makers, or decorators (Francis Jourdain, Charlotte Perriand). At the corner of rue Matignon and the Faubourg Saint Honoré, his workshop becomes a unique hotspot for creation, leading to an exceptional vitality in 1950s French Decorative Arts.
As a matter of fact, Jacques Adnet acquires a great recognition for his creations. With the building of the Saint Gobain’s Pavillon at the 1937 Arts and Techniques International Exhibition, he receives the Great Price of Architecture. He is later invited to preside the highly renown Salon des Artistes Décorateurs in both 1948 and 1949. At that time, he creates a functional furniture which metallic structures, sheathed with natural or synthetic leather and showing simple and elegant lines, perfectly fit the renewal of modern spirit. Blaise Cendars later writes that ‘the seven wonders of the modern world are spark ignition engines, rolling bearing, a great tailor’s cut, Satie’s music, money, the shaved neck of a woman with her hair shingled and, obviously, the work of furniture set designer Jacques Adnet’ (Cendars, Profond aujourd’hui).
Jacques Adnet is frequently commissioned for his sets. He notably decorates Mr Franck Jay Gould’s hotel or nothing less than the working cabinet of the French president in the Castle of Rambouillet. He also works for various Ocean liners such as the Ferdinand de Lesseps. In 1959, he puts an end to the Compagnie des Arts Français to take the head of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs until 1970.
Annita Romano (born in 1966)
Depicting time in art is what puzzles Brazilian artist Annita Romano for more than 10 years. Her work uses ancient and worn-out pieces of fabric, ‘bits of memory’, through which she threads her needles. Freely and instinctively, she pierces their souls, overlies them, binds, unbinds and rebinds them, thus revealing a ripped off fullness, loose and incomplete. Her hands thread what we refuse to see, what we try to hide, to repress, to bury. Her fabrics unravel our personal existence in an ephemeral world, fragmentary and intermittent.
‘Even though the minor detail has its metaphorical meaning, sewing is not in itself a goal… It is more of a thought on fundamental components of art and life. My work binds me to life itself, give it a meaning, leaves a trace in it. For me it is an expression of truth, a way to redemption. I admit it is probably an impulsive and insane position, when the disturbing message is that life is evanescent, that we are alone in the world, that we hurt each other, that we grow up, get old and forget… And that none of this can be captured, not even in art. But my work makes me free, it brings me to a state of ecstasy and total abandonment. So yes … after all, only hope remains.’ A. Romano
Her recent works are compositions with subtle shades, frame with aerial structures and floating in the air. Her fabrics are bare, translucent, tinted with earth, leaves and roots. Seemingly fragile, these ‘skins of life’ invite us to enter the deepness of her own sewed truth and to search for its testifying remains within.
Annita Romano was born in Sao Paulo, in Brasil. After a career as an architect and interior designer, and having the studied History of Art at the Ecole du Louvre, she decides to focus solely on painting. In 2006, fabrics become her preferred material to express herself. Since then the international community have taken interest in her innovative approach, and the artist has illustrated herself through various exhibitions, alone or with others, at the Grand Palais in Paris, in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, or in Germany, in the cities of Berlin and Hamburg.
Hélène Morbu (born in 1981)
Though she studied in the Beaux-Arts in Reims and in the National School of Applied Arts and Art Professions in Paris (Olivier de Serres), the least one can say is that Hélène Morbu managed to stand out in the way she apprehends ceramic and disrupts its codes.
Impregnated by Art Deco since her childhood in Saint Quentin (Aisne), Hélène Morbu is part of the logical continuity of this great artistic tradition in France in the early 21st century. Yet she considerably augments its aesthetic vocabulary. She sets up her workshop in Nantes in 2008. Through her technical mastery and the way she listens to the matter, she creates a new formal and plastic language, going to and fro, from the gentleness of textures to the roughness of the lines. The association of colours and materials, partly enamelled, allows her to elaborate effects of contrast and relief with raw clay. Her works have been awarded at the 2016 Young Creators contest of the Ateliers d’Art de France and again at the Ceramic 14 Salon (Audience Award).
Pierre-Rémi Chauveau (born in 1983)
Graduated from the Superior School of Arts and Design in Reims and from the MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins in London, Pierre Remi Chauveau also lived several years in Africa, exhibited his designs at the Salone del Mobile in Milano and now works between Lyon and Paris, where his pieces are regularly showed at the Arcanes Gallery.
Inspired from multiple influences, his creations made of wood, marble, glass and lacquer, play with the opposition of materials by combining them in a harmonious balance.
He is deeply convinced that any piece of furniture should be modular and adapted to its environment.
He offers a high quality design which is made-to-measure by a talented team of handcraftsmen.
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