Maria Pergay's Brilliant Furniture Designs - Fusing Marquetry with Stainless Steel

Maria Pergay: Between Ideas and Design

Maria Pergay

Hello to All That: A 70's Star Reborn  

Stuart Isett for the New York Times

Currents | QandA

New York Times

Maria Pergay, 79, Furniture Designer 

By RIMA SUQI
Published: May 19, 2010

Last weekend, while New York City was overrun by design enthusiasts in town for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Maria Pergay, a 79-year-old Parisian furniture designer relatively unknown in this country, was ensconced in a nautical modernist room at the Maritime Hotel.

She was in New York not for the furniture fair — an event, it turns out, that she has never heard of — but to show her latest work at the Demisch Danant gallery in Chelsea (including a sofa of broken bricks she is shown sitting on). Those expecting a woman of her age to produce soft, feminine, upholstered pieces appropriate for a Paris pied-à-terre may be surprised by what has been Ms. Pergay’s material of choice for decades: stainless steel...

"Making Its Mark"

Nancy A. Ruhling,

Art and Antiques, 2006

"Today, a handful of renowed artists, notably Silas Kopf, Maria Pergay, Jay Stanger and Jean-Charles Spindler, innovatively employ marquetry and parquetry and inlay and intarsia in their work as a means to an artistic end. “There are not a lot of contemporary artists working with marquetry,” says Scott Jacobson, owner of Manhattan’s Leo Kaplan Modern. “It’s highly skilled work and painstaking.”

Regardless of the style or type of inlay, the wide appeal of marquetry is more than surface deep. Art lovers, for example, are drawn to Pergay’s work, which incorporates stainless steel inlays in a variety of finishes and other unusual combinations of precious woods and natural elements like mother of pearl, says Suzanna Demisch, a partner in Manhattan’s Demisch Danant, “because they can’t figure out how it’s done.”

While cutting-edge sculptural works like Pergay’s, which sell for $15,000 to $150,000, prove that marquetry and parquetry and inlays and intarsia always will have a place in the art world, the craft it takes to turn out tour-de-force pieces is another matter."

Cunard and David Linley Honor Queen Elizabeth with Marquetry Artwork

David Linley

Linley's Marquetry Artwork Commission 

Both David Linley and the marquetry traditions of Cunard's Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth ocean liners are on my blog post topics to-do list. I'm traveling with my family, thus short on time - here's the news, starting with the intro from Cunard's press release and ending with a passage from Sue Bryant's piece for Cruise Critic:

20 May 2010 - Yesterday, in Chelsea near London, Cunard Line unveiled the stunning centerpiece for the Grand Lobby of the Line's newest ship, Queen Elizabeth, debuting this fall. The artwork was specially commissioned to David Linley, son of the late Princess Margaret and the internationally famous photographer Lord Snowdon - and Her Majesty The Queen's only nephew - whose company specializes in the design and creation of fine furniture and marquetry. Linley's magnificent work shows the port bow of the original Queen Elizabeth seen dramatically from sea level, and is intricately executed using the technique of marquetry inlay with nine individual panels made of various types of wood veneers seamlessly jointed to lightweight board.

David Linley and Peter Shanks
(Click on images for picture viewer)

Cunard's Wow Factor 

Queen Elizabeth Art (May 20, 2010, 5 p.m. EDT) -- A fittingly royal touch for Cunard's new Queen Elizabeth was unveiled last night. 

The backdrop to the sweeping staircase descending into the 90,400-ton ship's magnificent Grand Lobby, the first area passengers see on boarding, is going to be an intricate marquetry panel, two and a half decks high, depicting the original Queen Elizabeth -- and designed by master wood craftsman David Linley.

Viscount Linley, whose clients include Oprah Winfrey and perfume magnate Jo Malone, trained in cabinet-making under John Makepeace and founded his design company, Linley, in 1985. He has gone on to become a huge international success, creating exquisite inlaid wooden furniture that comes with a hefty price tag; at the big reveal of the panel last night in Linley's spacious Belgravia showroom, journalists and Cunard executives awkwardly circled a £16,500 table, not quite knowing where to put their drinks down.

So what's the thinking behind the panel? Peter Shanks, president and managing director of Cunard, told the gathering last night: "We needed to fill that space with something which would not just be dramatic, a "wow" factor in an area already full of "wow," but which would also reflect our emphasis on traditional and sumptuous materials."

"Once we had decided on the theme and the medium, it didn't take us long to conclude that no one was better qualified for this detailed but monumental work than the company of the exceptional craftsman David Linley, whose creative ability and mastery of wood is renowned."

Artist's rendering of Art Deco Panel
(Click on images for picture viewer)

 Art Deco Panel in Marquetry
 

The panel is undeniably stunning and will make a superb backdrop for formal photographs. It'll be made of nine wooden veneers, including Indian ebony, American walnut, bird's eye maple and grey ripple sycamore. The finished product will be shipped to the Fincantieri shipyard at Monfalcone, Italy, where Queen Elizabeth is under construction, and assembled over a period of four days.

LINLEY's Chairman, David Linley, who founded the company in 1985, commented: 

"I recall my father saying the interior design of Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 made one proud to be British, so I am hoping our achievement on the new Queen Elizabeth will make him -- and others -- equally proud."

As a result, Linley, a company specialising in the design and manufacture of fine furniture and marquetry was commissioned to design and make this stunning centrepiece at the heart of the ship. Work is currently under way, and the completed panel will be shipped during the summer to the Fincantieri shipyard at Monfalcone, Italy, where it will be installed over a period of four days to take pride of place just before the ship enters service in October.

Patternity's Marquetry Arrives with Hidden Art in Milan 2010

Grace Winteringham presents her Phase Bureau with Hidden Art in Milan 2010

Detail: Phase pattern on central leaf and Grace Winteringham
(Click on images for picture viewer)

Father and Daughter Collaboration

A quick nod to this lovely Father and Daughter collaboration highlighted in my earlier Toby Winteringham and Patternity post. The new images and quotes come from a May 14th, 2010 post at Purewhite - Designs by Kirsty White: 

"The collaboration with daughter, Grace, has borne fruit. Her company, Patternity, has been selected by Hidden Art to go to Salone Satellite 2010 in Milan."

"The Phase pattern used in the range explores traditional marquetry craft revisited – true to the technique, the design represents the transitions between cutting out and replacing in, combining old with new, bold with neutral.

I think it was really refreshing to see a traditional technique using contemporary pattern and colour."

Here are the designers and Hidden Art team

at Hidden Art Milan 2010... the fab 5

To view all Purewhyte products please visit the website www.purewhyte.com 

For Patternity, visit www.patternity.co.uk

Hella Jongerius - Jongeriuslab - Swatch Table Edition

Hella Jongerius 

Hella Jongerius
Photo of Hella is from: 
http://greatdesigners.wordpress.com 

The Dutch designer-maker HELLA JONGERIUS (1963-) works on the cusp of design, craft, art and technology to fuse traditional and contemporary influences, high tech and low tech, the industrial and artisanal. 

Born in De Meern in 1963, she studied industrial design at the Eindhoven Design Academy and has since combined elements of that discipline with those of traditional craftsmanship in products, textiles and ceramics. Many of her early designs were manufactured by Droog, the influential Dutch design collective, and she now puts her own work into production through Jongeriuslab, her Rotterdam studio, as well as developing products for manufacturers such as Maharam, Royal Tichelaar Makkum and Vitra. See Hella Jongerius' work at jongeriuslab.com.

Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes

Premiere at the Museum of Arts and Design
May 16, 2009 at 2:00pm
Contemporary Archtypes Video
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

Produced and Directed by Amie Knox
Executive Producers: Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III
Edited by Chad Herschberger

Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes New York Premiere at the Museum of Arts and Design May 16th 2009

Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes from Design Onscreen on Vimeo.

Hella Jongerius Book

Book
Hella Jongerius – the first book on a young, highly talented designer with a burgeoning career and rave reviews in the international press. Curators describe Jongerius as ‘a unique talent who has no rivals’ (MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli); and ‘one of the most significant designers in the world today’ (Aaron Betsky, head of the Netherlands Architecture Institute).

A book that captures the ‘next wave’ of product design, introducing a leading figure in the new generation of designers of the 21st century. 

Studio Job's "Industry" marquetry collection

MiArtStudio's present goal is to introduce you to the leading contemporary marquetry and inlay artists

I want to give you a brief profile of each, show a few images from their portfolio and share my enjoyment of their art. I'm moving laterally from artist to artist, not worrying about chronology. I plan to catch up with the present in due course, get into the traffic and start focusing on what's new/next.

I was starting a post on Pieter Maes's marquetry portfolio, but got sidetracked by Justin McGuirk on design about Studio Job's Industry Collection. What to do, stay on mission or jump in with the traffic? As usual, the answer is "both and more..." :-)

'Industry' Table

"Dutch/Belgian design duo Studio Job treat furniture as sculpture, creating a beautiful tale of industry's demise that looks back to the arts and crafts movement." 

(from "Is it design, or is it ... art?" by Justin McGuirk)

'Industry' Screen

"Marquetry is an amazing craft. Studio Job takes the traditional technique and adds some contemporary twists for their “Industry Series,” which will be on display from today at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London." (from Selectism) 

'Industry' Table

'Industry'

Studio Job has previously exhibited in "Telling Tales" at the Victoria and Albert Museum. “Industry Series” will be on view through May 8, 2010. Carpenters Workshop Gallery is located at 3 Albermarle St, London, W1s. (via Dezeen).