An exhibition in Milan pays tribute to Charlotte Perriand, French designer and photographer

From June 27 to September 25, 2022 M77 Gallery presents the exhibition Charlotte Perriand. Avant-garde is woman, curated by Enrica Viganò, produced in collaboration with Archives Charlotte Perriand, Admira and Cassina.

The exhibition project aims to introduce the rich and versatile production of Charlotte Perriand (Paris, 1903 - 1999), a famous French designer and photographer, collaborator and friend of Le Courbusier and other greats of her time, by placing in dialogue her photographic production of the 1930s with a selection of the iconic furniture produced exclusively by Cassina.

Charlotte Perriand was a complex and eclectic figure, a woman who spanned the entire twentieth century, fully experiencing the great season of the development of industrial culture and modernity. A daughter of the avant-garde of her time, she shone for her intelligence, nonconformity and originality of thought.

Apioneer of modernism, she experimented with a great plurality of languages, such as architecture, design, urban planning, photography, politics and civic engagement, going beyond conventions and opening her mind to a new way of thinking about life. A tireless traveler, she worked extensively in the East, making the encounter with another culture an opportunity to enhance her creativity, learn new ways of imagining, designing and opening up (ahead of her time) to multiculturalism.

The exhibition is divided into thematic areas intended to provide an overview of the main aspects that characterize Charlotte Perriand’s work and sensibility.

The first part of the exhibition presents a selection of photographs whose subject is the mountains, a place dear to the artist and a great source of inspiration, including a life-size portrait of Perriand herself in a ski outfit. This is followed by two portraits of her most famous friendships, Le Corbusier and Fernand Léger, on either side of the Parthenon, photographed while traveling to Athens for the architects’ convention in 1933. The exhibition continues with the series she called Art Brut (unrelated to the so-called outsider art current), where some natural objet-trouvés, often found on the beaches of Normandy, are photographed in still life mode, emerging under the artist’s gaze as true works of art. On the ground floor are two large photographs of a block of ice that Perriand transforms into symbol and metaphor with her hands raising it; in the center is the iconic portrait of Perriand with her bare back in a victorious pose on a peak in Savoy.

The second floor closes the exhibition with a selection of photographs of seascapes and urban centers immortalized in Croatia, England, Paris and Japan. Shots as visual notes for his well-rounded creativity. The shapes of objects and structures become inspiration for the forms of his furniture and architecture.

For info: https://www.m77gallery.com/

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; closed Mondays and holidays. Closed for summer break from Saturday, Aug. 6 to Tuesday, Aug. 30 inclusive.

Image: Credit Archives Charlotte Perriand. Courtesy of Admira

An exhibition in Milan pays tribute to Charlotte Perriand, French designer and photographer

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