Pierre Paulin Desks
Pierre Paulin introduced a fresh breeze into French furniture design in the 1960s and ’70s, fostering a sleek new Space-Age aesthetic. Along with Olivier Mourgue, Paulin developed chairs, sofas, dining tables and other furnishings with flowing lines and almost surreal naturalistic forms. And his work became such a byword for chic, forward-looking design and emerging technologies that two French presidents commissioned him to create environments in the Élysée Palace in Paris.
Paulin was born in Paris to a family of artists and designers. He initially sought to become a ceramist and sculptor and was studying in the town of Vallauris near the Côte d'Azur — a center for pottery making, where Pablo Picasso spent his postwar summers crafting ceramics — but broke his hand in a fight. He enrolled at the École Camondo, the Paris interior design school. There, Paulin was strongly influenced by the work of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Arne Jacobsen, as was reflected in his early creations for the manufacturer Thonet-France.
It was at the Dutch firm Artifort, which he joined in 1958, where Paulin blossomed. In a few years, he produced several of his signature designs based on abstract organic shapes. These include the Butterfly chair (1963), which features a tubular steel frame and slung leather, and a group of striking seating pieces made with steel frames covered in polyurethane foam and tight jersey fabric: the Mushroom (1960), Ribbon (1966) and Tongue (1967) chairs. The revered designer not only introduced new construction techniques to Artifort furniture but contributed fresh materials, Pop art colors and dazzling shapes to the mid-century modern era as a whole.
In 1971, the Mobilier National — a department of France’s Ministry of Culture in charge of furnishing top-tier government offices and embassies — commissioned Paulin to redesign President Georges Pompidou’s private apartment in the Élysée Palace. In three years, Paulin transformed the staid rooms into futuristic environments with curved, fabric-clad walls and furnishings such as bookcases made from an arrangement of smoked-glass U shapes, flower-like pedestal chairs and pumpkin-esque loungers.
Ten years later, the Mobilier National called on Paulin again, this time to furnish the private office of President François Mitterand. Paulin responded with an angular, postmodern take on neoclassical furniture, pieces that looked surprisingly at home in the paneled, Savonnerie-carpeted Louis XVI rooms. As those two Élysée Palace projects show, Paulin furniture works well both in a total decor or when used as a counterpoint to traditional pieces. His creations have a unique personality: bright and playful yet sophisticated and suave.
Find vintage Pierre Paulin lounge chairs, armchairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
1980s American Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Birdseye Maple, Walnut
20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
Wood
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Steel
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Wood
1950s North American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Aluminum, Steel, Chrome
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
Brass
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Plexiglass, Wood
Late 20th Century French Post-Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
Resin, Plastic
Mid-20th Century American British Colonial Pierre Paulin Desks
Brass
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Teak
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Chrome
Early 18th Century English George I Antique Pierre Paulin Desks
Other
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Teak
1950s French Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Steel
1960s French Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
Mid-20th Century French Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
Mid-20th Century French Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
1960s French Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
1980s American Art Deco Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Leather, Maple, Walnut
20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Pierre Paulin Desks
Metal
