Two major pieces republished since 1960 by the German firm Tecta

Furniture created by artists - not to be confused with the furniture said style, time or reproduced by craftsmen - appear around 1860, for a great vogue in Europe and America of the North until the interwar period. Member of the English Arts & Crafts movement, who defended the free forms inspired by nature, and industrialization growth, the rehabilitation of the actions of the agent, William Morris was one of the flagship. In France, the current reached its peak with the masters of the Art new such as Hector Guimard and mile Gallé, Louis Majorelle. Elsewhere in Europe, the artists of the avant-garde, DeStijl in the Netherlands, Jugenstil in Germany or Secession in Austria, interested in decorative arts, in particular to the creation of pieces of furniture. Come to Italy, the sculptor Carlo Bugatti leaves a legacy of lavish, including illustrated by his work for the khedive Palace in Istanbul in 1902. At the end of the 1920s, Soviet painter-photographer El Lissitzky, co-founder of the movement constructivist with the painter Malevich, tries to turn to the genre with its "phrophylactiques", a plywood chairs in aluminium, exposed in 1928 in Cologne. Two major pieces republished since 1960 by the German firm Tecta.

Inspired by Mae West lips sofa-mouth

In 1936, landed in Hollywood to work with Walt Disney, Salvadore Dali draws the mouth sofa inspired by the lips of actress Mae West for the Spanish painter had imagined a "paranoid furnishings." Manufactured from 1937 in London, then in Paris by Jean-Michel Frank workshops, this sofa purpurin figure prominently in the rooms of the House of couture Elsa Schiaparelli, place Vendôme, and in movies of the Marx Brothers that Dalí idolized. In 1972, the Italian collective Studio 65 pays tribute to the surrealist painter with a Marilyn sofa - a star hunting the other - manufactured by the Italian House Gufram who will be a specialty of this "anti-design" claimed by pop culture. This last is interested also in the decorative arts, among the best-known interventions, those of the Chilean painter Roberto Matta edited by Knoll and the Italian Dino Gavina which creates its own production, Simon International structure. It is the time of the Ottoman MAgriTTA, a raised Green Apple in an inverted Black Hat, tribute to the Belgian painter dated 1970.

Are also this trend the furniture of the Turinese Carlo Mollino (Zanotta) or Piero Fornasetti futuristico-Baroque style. Or even those of artist kinetics and protest designer Bruno Munari (Danese) and sculptor Isamu Noguchi, former assistant for Brancusi in Paris and friend of Giacometti (edited by Knoll then Vitra and Sentou Galerie).

As the pieces signed by sculptor Alexandre Noll, today unaffordable, the rating of furniture published by French art galleries in the 1970s was that fly due to their rarity and the return to popularity of their creators. Example: the Chair man, edited forty copies by ric & Christiane Germain Gallery in 1971. Signed by the American artist Ruth Francken, this work listed some 7 000 euros was sold recently 30 800 euro in Artcurial. Ditto for the minimalist painter Guy de Rougemont autoédita in 1971 his lamp cloud plastic. Its rating now reaches the bagatelle of EUR 5 000, approximately ten times the original price. Famous for having honoured in 1955 a command of the Negus Haile Selassie - a lion of Judea top 10 metres which will be developed at the centre of Addis Ababa-, the sculptor Maurice Calka designed including one of the centrepieces of the French design pop: the Boomerang fibreglass Office lacquered. Published by Leleu-Deshays in 1970 and marketed so 4 500 francs, this imposing furniture is currently estimated up to EUR 30 000.

The most recent creations of great Italian contemporary furniture as B & B Italia and Cassina publishers see also their prices fly. This is the case of signed parts Gaetano Pesce, creator of "Nobody's Perfect", a row of seats, shelves, credenzas, tables and beds resin polyurethane colour may vary randomly depending on the mood and the desires of the workers responsible for their manufacture. Each piece of furniture, duly numbered and signed by the latter, becomes a single object. "I left thus free to a few individuals whose signature liability for copyright", commented Pesce. Museums love. Collectors also. His furniture is worth gold auction. It is edited and produced by the Italian firm Zerodisegno, known to fans for his furniture "Takeoffs" designed by the work of Mimmo Rotella, died last January.

The origin of the néo-barbare current

In France, the news of the furniture of contemporary art also passes through galleries. Newcomer, the young Grégory Fouble created MAAD (for modernism in furniture of art and design) that publishes Hilton McConnico projects, those of the Pupsam duo or Régis Mayot. Installed in their showroom of Orléans workshop, Véronique and Francis Cat Berro collaborate for many years with architects and interior designers, designers and artists to Olivier Gagnère, Jacques Jarrige Mattia Bonetti, which created with Elisabeth Garouste furniture are at the origin of the current "néo-barbare". Also editor of Christian 22t17 furniture, Franck Evennou, Patrick Naggar Frédéric de Luca, the couple opened a gallery in Paris last spring. They opened it with the pro (USA) exhibition Bonetti - fascinating and addictive vocatrice "stones" of wood furniture. Since then, space Unveils permanently exhibit unique or produced in limited series of Yves - Marie Dumortier, Pucci de Rossi, Eric Schmitt, Vera Kunodi...

Since its inception in 1993, the Centre for research on the arts of fire and Earth (Craft) has dual purpose to reforge the links between industrialists and artists-designers and give back to the ceramics a pivotal role on the contemporary art scene. Installed in Limoges, led by Argentine architect Nestor Perkal, Craft broadcasts unique creations or numbered limited series. As a Cabinet wood and porcelain set no. 1 signed Becheau-Bourgeois, the still lifes of Nathalie du Pasquier, the chandeliers Cyclops porcelain enamelled Daniel Nadaud or cenotaphs of the large Japanese photographer Keiichi Tahara.

Artist and Parisian sculptor noted for his scenography of the exhibition "Melancholy" and "Private Portraits, portraits" of the Grand-Palais, Hubert the Gall is also in limited series (eight to twenty-five copies) of floral or Zoomorphic inspiration furniture. Presentation in Milan, London and Paris, his work, both valuable, poetic and surrealist - Chair Flower Pot, convenient Sheepskin rug shade moth-, plays on the Velvet, bronze and glass to compose a dreamlike and humorous universe. Artist-decorator, Hervé Van Der Straeten, known for its jewelry, works with luxury homes who appreciate his work on precious materials like ebony, bronze or the lacquer. He created the vial of perfume I love Dior and Guerlain KissKiss lipstick tube last.

The furniture of contemporary art is an investment on the talent that will never be bad taste to depreciate. As its prices are barely higher than for the industrial design of series.

BOX .

Pablo Reinoso bagworms

Self-taught sculptor based in Paris since 1979, the Argentine Pablo Reinoso is an artist singular, everywhere in Europe and which route marching in 1988 through a partnership with the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Italian House Poltrona Frau, known for the excellence of its leather seats. Reinoso imagina then not a wheelchair but a folding table in leather named Pocketable and sold in a pizza box. In 2004, on the occasion of the Paris demonstration "Designer's Day", reactive Reinoso the link with Frau for sensory installation related to the unconscious and ironically entitled Poltrona Freud. Because, in the meantime, become artistic director of Parfums Givenchy (2000-2006), this hands-on "met" psychoanalysis. And engaged in artistic work closely combining furniture and super-ego. Freud, Vienna: it is with historical Austrian company Thonet sofas and chairs that Reinoso filma Spanish choreographer Blanca Li. For Claude Nougaro, it draws in 2002 the Bank on which the singer engaged at the Bouffes du Nord its ma fontaine Fables. It is still him who signed the wide couch full leather edited year last by the duo sellier-upholsterer Domeau & Peres, editor of furniture created by Christophe Pillet, Matali Crasset and the Bouroullec brothers. He did not disdains the constraints of creating communities and offices, which led him to work with the American House Herman-Miller and J.c. Decaux, RADIUS urban fixture.