#maria pergay

[nobrashfestivity]

Maria Pergay Ring chair, 1967

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[pairs-studio]

[nowebsite]

[fashionbooksmilano]

Eyre de Lanux

An American Decorator in Paris

Louis-Gérard Castor, Willy Huybrechts

Norma Editions, Paris 2015, 207 pages,  23.72 x  31.37 cm, ISBN  978-2915542646

euro 60,00

email if you want to buy :booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Born into the American aristocracy, Elizabeth Eyre de Lanux abandoned high society to pursue an artistic career. Starting her training with Constantin Brancusi, she then arrived in Paris in 1919, following her marriage to French diplomat and writer Pierre de Lanux. She soon met the designer Eileen Gray. Eyre took over Gray's research on laquer and continued experimenting with innovative materials not previously used in furniture, namely cork, amber and linoleum. With Evelyn Wyld, she created a literary universe in which the poetry of her rugs, blended with furniture and lamps in totally new ways, all in an environment of muted shades and modern comfort. An ambitious artist in the Surrealist Paris of the interwar years, she wanted to believe in a peaceful future. But the crash of 1929 and World War II sounded the death knell for the career of this fresh new talent, ensuring that her creations became the rarest of objects. A bridge between the pioneering Eileen Gray and the rational Charlotte Perriand, like them, Eyre de Lanux drew inspiration from Japonism. Neither poor, nor stripped bare, her rare architectured interiors have remained secret until now. Elizabeth Eyre de Lanux is a recognised name but a forgotten talent. With Eileen Gray, Eyre de Lanux, Charlotte Perriand and Maria Pergay, the four cardinal points have now been identified.

27/12/22

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[dd20century]

Maria Pergay's 2013 "Secret Garden" Exhibition

If you enjoyed our recent post on sculptor and designer Maria Pergay you'll enjoy this brief video that highlights her seminal 2013 exhibition "Secret Garden" at the Demisch Danant Gallery in New York City.

If you missed our post on Maria Pergay, you can read about her here.

[metalegg]

Maria Pergay

[oninspirationm]

Maria Pergay

[formlab]

Paire de tables Cube, Maria Pergay, 1968

[nicolaihecht]

Maria Pergay

[shadowpraise]

Kappa Coffee Table Designed By Maria Pergay

[andythefurnituremaker]

Maria Pergay Pouf Ruban / Ribbon Pouf, 2007

[lovecaboose]

Maria Pergay Pouf Ruban / Ribbon Pouf, 2007

[nowebsite]

[zsofimayer]

Oza/ MARIA PERGAY

[dd20century]

Maria Pergay: Having Her Way with Steel

"Steel talks to me. If it's ready to obey, it is like a tamed animal. But if it's bad, it's a slap in the face. Fortunately, I haven't received many of those." –Maria Pergay

The French designer Maria Pergay's was best known for her innovative use of stainless steel as a medium for furniture and household objects. (1,2) She preferred to work with stainless steel because of its strength, durability, and availability. The material allowed her to bend and shape it into playful, sculptural forms. (2) She challenged contemporary design trends with thin, layered steel pieces that often incorporated unexpected elements like safety pins or bows. (1)

Designer Maria Pergay. Photographer: Unknown. Image source.

Maria Pergay’s Early Life

The beginning of Maria Pergay’s life story unfolds like a suspense novel. She was born on October 28, 1930 in Moldavia (now Romania). (2) Her father was both engineer in the military and a Russian spy. When his cover was blown in 1937, he escaped back to Russia and later was imprisoned in a labor camp. Maria’s mother fled with young Maria to Paris where they lived during World War II. (3)

After the war, Maria studied costume and set design at Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématograhiques (4) and studied sculpture with artist Ossip Zadkine. She married business student Marc Pergay and raised four children. The couple divorced 20 years later. (3)

Maria Pergay’s Work Gets Noticed

“In 1954 she began helping a decorator friend dress shop windows in Paris, one of which was next to Hermès’ (4). Her dramatic theatrically inspired designs caught the attention of the Hermès staff and soon she was designing items for Hermès “such as her trademark ribbon and belt-buckle adorned silver boxes” (4). Christian Dior, Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, and Salvador Dali also became clients. Her unique style of working in silver laid the groundwork for her leap to stainless steel.(3)

Maria Pergay, Tassel Bowl in silver, (1957). Image source.

Pergay’s Work in Stainless Steel

In 1960 Ms. Pergay opened a “shop on the Place de Vosges” (4). In 1967 the largest steel maker in France, Ugine-Gueugnon suggested she begin working in stainless steel. The following year proved to be the most prolific for the designer; she created the Flying Carpet Daybed, the Wave Bench, and her most famous design the Ring Chair. (4) In an interview with the New York Times she said that the Ring chair had been “inspired by the spiraling form of an orange peel”(5). Ms. Despite having no formal training in furniture design, she transformed the “face of French decoration in the [1960s] and 1970s”(6), all during a time when the industry was dominated by men.

Maria Pergay, Flying Carpet Daybed in stainless steel, (1968). Image source.

“In 1970 [Maria Pergay] was commissioned, ... to create the luxurious tent bedroom of Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi, wife of the Shah of Iran”(4). From the 1970s, her focus shifted from designing individual items to whole interior spaces. (4)

Pergay often added a note of whimsy to her work by incorporating bow, ribbon, buckle motifs into her designs. In 2013 she designed a set of chairs inspired by Venetian gondolas. Her later work continued to feature stainless steel as the primary material but often combined with wood, brass, or animal skins. (3)

Maria Pergay, Ring Chair in stainless steel, (1968). Image source.

Pergay’s Rediscovery by Demisch & Danant

During the 1990s New York City art gallery owners Suzanne Demisch and Stéphane Danant rediscovered Maria Pergay’s work. Ms. Demisch learned of the Pergay’s work from her “architecture commissions for the Saudi royal family”(3). In 2013 the gallery held a retrospective, “Maria Pergay: Secret Garden.” The same year designer Silvia Venturini Fendi, who had been a great admirer of Pergay’s work commissioned her to design “pieces for her Avenue Montaigne store, as well as commissioning her to create a series of pieces inspired by Fendi's legacy for Design Miami”(3).

Maria Pergay, Frozen Bush Table in nickeled cast bronze and glass, (2008). Image source.

Maria Pergay continued designing until her death on October 31, 2023 at age 93. During the last decade of her life, she executed more than seventy new designs. Using her rich imagination rather than being influenced by the work of her contemporaries (3), she created a collection of furniture and other objects that embodied her unique design sense. Maria Pergay’s designs exemplified her confidence in using non-traditional materials and motifs in unconventional and sometimes humorous ways.

References

Gotthardt, A., (28 October, 2015). On Her 85th Birthday, Maria Pergay Looks Back at her Decades-Long Design Career. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-iconoclast-designer-maria-pergay-looks-back-at-her-decades-long-career

Wikipedia.com, (23 December, 2023). Maria Pergay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Pergay

Bertoli, R., (8 november 2023). In Memoriam: Maria Pergay (1930-2023). https://www.wallpaper.com/design-interiors/maria-pergay-obituary

Mowen, J., (September/October 2018). Seeing Beauty: Maria Pergay. Vogue Style Magazine. http://www.jasonmowen.com/2018/11/30/vogue-living-sep-oct-2018-maria-pergay/

Rawsthorn, A., (18 March, 2012). The Soft and Elegant Side of Stainless Steel. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/arts/design/the-soft-and-elegant-side-of-stainless-steel.html

Demischdanant.com, (n.d.). Maria Pergay 1957-1979. https://www.demischdanant.com/designers/maria-pergay-1957-1979/biography