Piet Mondrian and De Stijl

This winter the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, opened an exhibition exploring the works of Piet Mondrian and De Stijl. Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter and a key contributor to the De Stijl Movement of the early 20th century. He coined the term "Neo-Plasticism" to describe this style characterized by rigid lines and primary colors.

De Stijl, or "The Style," was a group of Dutch artists and well as a journal they published from 1917 until 1931. They sought to express a utopian ideal through abstraction, a fundamental reality rather than emotions. They simplified shape and color to their most basic, clearly defined forms. They worked with planes on a white background, adding only primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Symmetry was avoided; balance and harmony were achieved through opposition. 

Neoplasticism did not end with painting, but naturally flowed into furniture, interior design, and architecture. Straight lines and primary colors were used to achieve three-dimensional works of art. The Red Blue Chair was designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917. Originally painted in the "non-colors" of De Stijl (black, gray, and white), it was repainted in 1923 to match the primary colors being used by Mondrian.

The Schröder House, also designed by Rietveld, was built in Utrecht in 1924 and is the best example of De Stijl architecture. Its facade is composed of intersecting, rectilinear planes in black, gray, and white, with primary colored accents. It has an open floor plan; in place of walls the house has rotating and sliding panels that can partition off space as needed by the residents.

De Stijl influenced fine arts, music, typography, furniture design, fashion, and architecture the world over. It proposed using geometry, asymmetry, and abstraction to express beauty. It had profound impact on the art and architecture to come in the Bauhaus, International Style, and Modern movements, and we can still see its effects today.

Dress designed by Yves Sant Laurent

Piet Mondrian, "composition en rouge, bleu et blanc II", 1937
© Mondrian / Holtzman trust, coll. Centre Pompidou, RMN

Mondrian / De Stijl
December 1, 2010 - March 11, 2011
Place Georges Pompidou
75004 ParisGeneral phoneline : +33 (0)1 44 78 12 33

André SORNAY (1902-2000)

One of the great furniture designers of the 20th century, André Sornay, was perhaps lesser known than his contemporaries such as Le Corbusier, Ruhlmann and Jean Prouvé; this was due most likely to the fact that he lived and worked in Lyon and not in Paris. Born and raised in Lyon and very attached to his native city, he studied art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Lyon. He was a talented illustrator and had hoped to begin a career illustrating books, when he precipitately found himself at the helm of his family’s furniture business after his father’s death in 1919. He was 17 years old.

He completely revolutionized his family’s business, moving away from mere copies of classical furniture to conceptualizing and creating a whole new line of modern furniture using techniques of his own. Influenced by the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements, where the synthesis of art and architecture was a permanent quest, he belonged to a group of architects, artists and decorators that wanted to design new forms, perfectly suited to modern life. This Union des Artistes Modernes included such renowned designers as Pierre Chareau, Francis Jourdain, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand - all avant-gardist designers eager to democratize art.

Sornay armchairs, c. 1930s.

Sornay Buffet, c. 1935.

André Sornay’s creations were characterized by pure, geometric lines, harmonious proportions, and functionality. He developed signature techniques such as an assembling technique called “le cloutage”. This process of applying veneered woods with rows of nail heads that simulated rivets typically seen on industrial parts such airplane wings. Not only was it practical in terms of production, but beautiful as well (and trademarked in 1932).

Sornay Cabinet in mahogany, c. 1930-1940.

Sornay Bookshelf, c. 1930-1940.

He also developed the “meuble à système” (system furniture) giving multiple functionality to his furniture. For example, a console table could fold out to form a dining table for four, with stools that tuck away underneath the console when not in use. Another mark of Sornay’s clever mind was the integration of lighting into his furniture. He created night stands with built in lamps and floor lamps that served as end tables.

Sornay walnut night stands with integrated lamps, c. 1935.

Sornay floorlamp, c. 1935.

Always ahead of the times, Sornay used a combination of traditional and contemporary materials in his designs and developed his own ways of treating them. Oregon pine, an orange colored wood imported from the US and Canada, was steel brushed, sanded, ebonized and sanded again to allow the original colors to show through the black finish. He polished his pieces with Duco laquer (an automobile laquer) and created furniture pulls and other hardware from aluminum.

Sornay side table in ebonized Oregon pine, c. 1935.

Sornay didn’t stop at furniture design either. He was a gifted interior designer and his services as such were greatly in demand by the bourgeoisie Lyonnaise. He made beautiful illustrations of his clients’ interiors and the furniture he created to adorn them.

Sornay dining set, c. 1940.

Sornay "smoking tables", c. 1940.

Sornay gueridon, c. 1940.

Timeless, visionary and practical to boot, Sornay’s designs from the Art Deco period continue to make their mark in contemporary interior design as coveted objects of beauty…