Mathieu Mategot

Mathieu Mategot was a leading French designer of the 1950s. This artist of Hungarian origin was highly productive over a period of some twenty years, experimenting with materials, form and colour both in his furniture designs and in the art of tapestry-making, which he practiced into the 1980s. He invented his own artistic language, whose key elements were rigitulle, a type of perforated sheet metal, which he patented and which, by means of a system of folds, enabled him to shape his perforated metal in space, as well as ferotin, a balanced blending of metal and rattan. He commercialised his furniture abroad through his own company, notably in the UK and the Netherlands, and in the 1950s regularly participated in the major trade shows, such as the Salon des arts menagers (domestic arts trade fair) and the Salon des artistes decorateurs (Interior decorators trade fair). He designed many significant public and private commissions: part of the Drugstore des Champs-Elysees, the layout of the airport of Tit-Mellil in Casablanca, and many tapestries for Air France, the French consulate in New York, etc. This book provides a detailed overview of his entire career, thanks to a number of documents from the period, especially those made available in his family archives. It helps to better understand the inspiration for his creations and most importantly to rediscover a rich and varied body of work.