by Evi Mibelli.
“I like the beautiful and the useful, and even more the beautiful in the useful.”
Andrée Putman was neither a true designer nor a true architect, but an exceptional “ensemblière“. This is how Sylvie Santini, biographer of the grand dame of French design, defines her. A perfect definition, which underlines the incredible coexistence of talents in a single person and her ability to excel in every field of style and art. She was born on December 23, 1925 – her real name is Andrée-Christine Aynard – into a decidedly unconventional, culturally avant-garde and art-loving family. The father is an intellectual who speaks seven languages and espouses a minimalist lifestyle that contrasts with the social rules imposed by his aristocratic origins.
Photos exhibited at the CAB Foundation – Chemin de Trious, Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the occasion of the monographic exhibition dedicated to A. Putman which ended on 23 October 2023.
Her mother is an extraordinarily talented pianist, who will give up her career for her husband and induces the young Andrée to undertake musical studies, in which she demonstrates her extraordinary abilities. Fate seems to have assigned her this path – at her mother’s wish – but a serious accident will interrupt her journey towards the stage. From that moment she will begin to follow new ones, driven by a tireless passion in creating bridges between art, fashion and design.
Andrée Putman’s notes and sketches exhibited at the CAB Foundation – Chemin de Trious, Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the occasion of the monographic exhibition dedicated to A. Putman which ended on 23 October 2023.
Wavy blonde hair, fiery red lips that frame a face with clear and austere features. A thin and slender silhouette, a love for monochrome: the embodiment of a refined and sober style. As her daughter Olivia says – at the helm of Studio Putman – “Andrée’s first work was herself”. This is demonstrated by the photographic shots of Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pierre et Gilles which convey a glamourous, almost Hollywood image.
These are the portraits that were recently exhibited at the exhibition dedicated to Andrée Putman at the Fondation CAB, Chemin de Trious, Saint-Paul-de-Vence. It is no coincidence that the Foundation is located in Villa Noailles, and it is no coincidence that the exhibition was held precisely in this architecture. There’s a reason. But we’ll come back to it later.
Ecart International, showcase of the Paris showroom, at 18 Rue Jacob.
Meanwhile, in the 1950s, Andrèe Putman embarked on a journalistic career. She lives in the heart of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, with her husband Jacques Putman, publisher and art critic. She will meet, in her always open and cosmopolitan apartment, writers and artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle and Samuel Beckett. She writes for Femina and L’Œil, establishing herself as a fashion expert, trend setter and talent scout.
She spends her time at the Café de Flore, observing Sartre and Beauvoir and at night frequents trendy clubs such as the Palace and Régine’s. In 1958 she joined the popular French retail chain Prisunic as a designer, for which she designed furniture and home decor at affordable prices. Her passion for design and architecture is only just beginning, when he discovers the forgotten projects and furniture of Eileen Gray, Robert Mallet Stevens, Pierre Chareau.
Ecart International, showroom interior, Paris. Armchair by Jean Michel Frank, designed in 1932, 1903 lamp by Mariano Fortuny. Photo from Best Archi Design (2017).
Villa Noailles, mentioned above, is designed by Robert Mallet Stevens. In this residence the Noailles patrons received friends, artists and intellectuals writing part of the cultural history of the twenties and thirties in Europe. At the beginning of the 1960s, Andrée Putman analyzed a superb collection of projects, prototypes and furniture products. Most of the furniture created in the 1920s had essentially disappeared, and many ideas remained one-off designs or copies.
Andrée understands that she is faced with something much more complex than an artistic movement. She rediscovers the foundations of our modernity, understands how a handful of brilliant architects and designers, half a century ahead of time, were able to materialize the social transformations that have shaped our way of living today. Unable to find anyone who wanted to produce such a cultural treasure, she decided to found, at the age of 53, Ecart International (1978), editing and re-editing the forgotten masterpieces of Eileen Gray, René Herbst, Jean-Michel Frank, Pierre Chareau, Robert Mallet-Stevens. Develop a catalog of invaluable consistency. And it happened.
Ecart International, showroom interior, Paris. Crescent moon sofa, design Andrèe Putman, Méditerranée carpet, design Eileen Gray. Photo from Best Archi Design (2017).
Testimonies abound regarding her intuitive ability to grasp the signs of genius and avant-garde. In 1971, for example, she created a company specializing in ready-to-wear with Didier Grumbach: Créateurs et Industriels. In the Paris concept store she will launch unknown talents, who later became undisputed stars, such as Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Issey Miyake, Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler.
Loft Putman, Paris. Ph. Architecture de Collection.
Regarding her stylistic code, devoted to simplicity and a certain taste for rigor (which is never coldness), one of her reflections applies above all: “When I was very young, I bought paintings by artists who were anything but established. To see and display them properly, I had to simplify the space in which they were displayed. Remove the colors. Make them disappear. Subtract. And I believe that this operation – subtraction – is the basis of all my work“.
She applies this rule in his magnificent Parisian loft (also recently put up for sale) where black furniture with chrome details, Art Deco pieces stand out, all on a polished concrete floor covered with a huge black carpet by Eileen Gray, the Black Board. Even in her lifestyle he is light years ahead. The trend of lofts transformed into residences will come much later.
Hotel Morgans, New York, 2008. Interior. Ph. Studio Putman.
In 1984 he inaugurated a new phase of her professional career, taking care of the interior design of the Morgans Hotel in New York. She will define it as a “boutique hotel” and it will be the first in history, with others to follow. It is precisely with the Morgans – but even before that in the apartments in Rome and Paris curated for her friend Karl Lagerfeld – that Andrèe will resort to the furnishings of the great masters of the Modern Movement which, with Ecart International, she has saved from oblivion.
Not only that, her passion for the chromatic play between black and white finds an ideal stage in the Morgans: the famous bathroom entirely tiled in a checkerboard pattern is an idea borrowed from Mallet Stevens who, in turn, had Josef Hoffmann as a reference with his Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1911).
Hotel Morgans, New York, 2008. Ph. Studio Putman.
Her Friends Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe and Keith Haring are enthusiastic and elect the Morgans as the new icon of hospitality. In the same year she opened her Interior Design agency in Paris. There were many orders: from private residences to high fashion showrooms, to hotels and the interior design of the Concorde and the office of the Minister of Culture Jack Lang.
She tirelessly continued to open Studio Putman in 1997, specializing in interior architecture, design and scenography. Ten years later she will pass the reins of the business to her daughter Olivia, ensuring the continuity of her style and her idea of all-round art. Andrée Putman will leave on January 19, 2013.
On the cover, Andrée Putman, the grande dame of design.
