Pierre Chareau ─ Modern Architecture and Design

The designer and architect Pierre Chareau (1883–1950) was a pivotal figure in modernism. His extraordinary Art Deco furniture is avidly collected and his visionary glass house, the Maison de Verre, is celebrated, but the breadth of his design genius has been little explored. Chareau linked architecture, fine arts, and style; designed furniture for avant-garde films and chic homes; collected artists such as Picasso and Mondrian; and was a radical innovator in the use of materials. Essays by leading scholars embrace the full scope of his invention, offering detailed analyses of individual projects, the interdisciplinary nature of his work, his Jewish background, his place in the avant-garde of Paris between the wars, and his more recent reception. Extensive illustrations present a rich sampling of Chareau’s furniture, architecture, interiors, fabrics, and wallpapers, as well as his own important art collection. 

Esther da Costa Meyer is professor of modern architecture at Princeton University. Bernard Bauchet is an architect and scholar based in Paris. Olivier Cinqualbre is chief curator of architecture at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Jean-Louis Cohen is Sheldon H. Solow Chair for the History of Architecture at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Robert M. Rubin is an independent scholar and curator. Kenneth E. Silver is professor of modern art at New York University. Brian Brace Taylor is professor of history and theory of architecture at the New York Institute of Technology.