Today, Prouve’s furniture and demountable houses are mainstays at the contemporary art market and can be found at the catalogues of Phillips, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Artcurial as well as main art fairs.
In June 2007 a record-breaking $4 960 000 was paid for MaisonTropicale at Christie’s New York and a demountable 6x9 was sold for ?665,0001 at Philips in London.
This September Central Exhibition Hall Manege together with GalerieCharraudeau and Vitra, a Swiss furniture manufacturer present Prouve’s original 6x9 in St Petersburg.
The object will be located in a outdoor space on the square by the Western fa?ade of the Manege. Project will feature an exhibition within an exhibition: the curators will recreate a working study environment made of Prouve’s furniture that Vitra builds today). Integration of Prouve’s house into the cityscape of St Petersburg will provide an exciting contrast and bring together various stages of urban evolution.
Free for all visitors. Please, take into account that the exhibition space is designed for a maximum of 10 people at a time.
Mon - Fri: 15.00 - 20.00
Sat, Sun: 13.00 - 20.00
Bookshop: 12:00-20:45
Manege Café: 12:00-20:45
JEAN PROUVE. CONSTRUCTOR
5 September 2017 — 1 October 2017
Jean Prouve brought real innovation to the XXth century architecture. However, Prouve didn’t receive special training in architecture and preferred to be called “a constructor”. He firmly believed that architecture should “leave no trace on the landscape”. A fundamental role of an architect-engineer was to find balance between spheres of art, industry and commerce while his own unique competences allowed him to be a perfect fit for that.
Since 1930 Prouve worked with Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeannere, founders of L’Union des artistes modernes. These names became synonymous with French Design.
Key principle – mountability – is a construction concept. Max dimensions of a prototype can’t exceed 4 meters in length and 100 kilograms in weight. In the final version dimensions should be improved to 6x6, 6x9 and 8x8 in square meters, depending on the model.
Only a small number of original demountable houses that possess historical and ideological value survived until today. One of them is exhibited on the square adjacent to theManege. Furniture built by Vitra from Prouve’s designs fills the house recreating a typical working interior of the 1940s.
Prouve’s works are central Vitra Design Museum. In 2001 Vitra, museum’s patron bought exculsive rights to manufacture Prouve’s objects. In 2011 Vitra together with Catherine Prouve and Dutch fashion brand G-Star released ProuveRAW – a series of both recognizable and novel items dedicated to the legendary constructor.
