Jean Prouvé

Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) is one of the great names of French design of the twentieth century. Son of the painter and sculptor Victor Prouvé, he was essentially self-taught: he studied as a blacksmith and soon opened his own workshop, drawing the principles of his style from daily practice and work on new technologies. "I am but a worker", he wrote in his autobiography. His art was engineering applied to design: he was a pioneer in the use of sheet steel and aluminum in the creation of furniture and lamps, moving away from the use of the typical tubular of the Bauhaus and going to create his own aesthetic, with an imprint strongly industrial, driven by a constant search for innovation and functionality. Starting in the 1950s, he abandoned his activity in the company and intensified his public presence, eventually chairing the commission that in 1971 chose Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers for the design of the Center Pompidou in Paris. His furnishings have been reissued exclusively by Vitra since 2002.