Intérieurs Modernes 1920-1930 Collection Design Du Centre Pompidou

Exhibition at the Hôtel des Arts, Toulon, 24 June - 30 October 2022

At the beginning of the 20th century, the salons presented furniture objects in the form of "ensembles" in a scenography of the interior where everything was linked: furniture objects, art objects, decorative objects, carpets, fabrics, colour, light, etc. The very profession of "ensemblier" covers the artist, the decorator and the architect at the same time.

This catalogue retraces the adventure of modernity in France in the 1920s and 1930s through the revolution of the domestic interior. Around the UAM (Union des artistes modernes), which brought together the great names of modernity (Robert Mallet-Stevens, Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, Sonia Delaunay, Francis Jourdain, Pierre Chareau, Eileen Gray, etc.), the designers called for the liberation of the home. They praised the dynamics of the body through sport and hygiene, and opened the interior to the exterior.

Through numerous essays and rich iconography, this publication explores the facets of the modern interior in France: its heritage from the decorative arts, its syncretic dimension, the aesthetics of the liner and the machine, the quest for comfort, the role of light and colour, the salons of the UAM, the child's room, between refuge and exploration of the world, as well as nature as a decorative element and artifice. Three major interiors from the 1920s are highlighted: Robert Mallet-Stevens's Villa Noailles, Pierre Chareau's Maison de verre and Eileen Gray's Villa E1027.