The Krefeld Art Museums have opened a major exhibition celebrating the work of French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), one of the few women who successfully established herself in the male-dominated modernist movement. The exhibition, titled "Charlotte Perriand: The Art of Living," opened on November 2 and offers visitors a unique opportunity to actually sit on reproductions of her iconic furniture pieces while exploring her remarkably contemporary design philosophy.
Perriand was a groundbreaking figure who collaborated with legendary architects Le Corbusier and Jean Prouvé while maintaining her own distinctive approach to design. She spent ten years working on designs for the winter sports resort Les Arcs, demonstrating her commitment to comprehensive architectural planning. Among her most celebrated creations are the Mexique bookshelf (1952) and the Fauteuil pivotant swivel chair (1927), both of which exemplify her innovative approach to functional design.
Museum Director Katia Baudin explains that Perriand's themes and approaches possess remarkable relevance to contemporary issues. "Questions about housing shortages, sustainability, and responsible resource management concern society today just as they did in her time," Baudin notes. "Charlotte Perriand always placed people at the center: For her, design was not an end in itself, but should improve everyday life." Perriand advocated for flexibility, participation, and collaboration, whether in developing modular furniture that allowed users to have a say, or in intercultural exchange with craftspeople and designers worldwide.
The collaboration with the Charlotte Perriand Archive came about through Baudin's relationship with Pernette Perriand, the designer's daughter, and Jacques Barsac, editor of the complete works catalog, who jointly manage the archive. The connection began in 2015 when Baudin was preparing an exhibition about Fernand Léger and his relationship to architecture at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. "Pernette and Jacques had opened the doors of the archive to me and infected me with their enthusiasm and expertise about Perriand," Baudin recalls. "I was surprised that Perriand was relatively unknown in Germany."
When Baudin moved to the Krefeld Art Museums in 2016, which include the former residences of Lange and Esters designed by Mies van der Rohe, she immediately envisioned a Perriand exhibition as a counterpoint to the Bauhaus movement. The current exhibition's thoroughness and density would not have been possible without the archive's collaboration, allowing the display of rare archival materials and objects from Perriand's collection, some of which are being loaned for the first time ever.
The reconstructions of complete rooms serve as central elements of the exhibition, making Charlotte Perriand's design ideas experienceable at a one-to-one scale and providing direct access to her thinking. Rather than presenting furniture only as individual pieces, entire spatial situations are recreated to demonstrate how Perriand understood living, working, and life as a unified concept. Upon entering the exhibition at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, visitors immediately encounter the Salon d'Automne from 1929, realized with support from furniture manufacturer Cassina.
Visitors can actually sit on furniture pieces created by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand. "Only when you experience a spatial concept with all your senses does the true radicalism and modernity of Perriand's ideas become clear," Baudin explains. The alpine emergency shelter Refuge Bivouac is also authentically reconstructed according to original plans. In Haus Lange, the exhibition connects to Perriand's central theme of synthesis of the arts, highlighting her formative stays in Japan, Indochina, and Brazil, as well as her collaborations with artistic personalities like Fernand Léger, Le Corbusier, and Isamu Noguchi.
When asked about a particular exhibit she's especially proud to display, Baudin singles out the Forme libre six pans table from 1938 (Free Form with Six Angles/Sides), a unique piece that Perriand specifically commissioned for her attic apartment in Montparnasse and later donated to the Centre Pompidou. The table has manifesto-like character, departing from the canons of modernism by using wood instead of metal, being handcrafted rather than industrially manufactured, and featuring asymmetrical rather than symmetrical design.
Despite these departures from modernist conventions, the form still follows function: Perriand created a dining table for six people in her small space that was much more space-saving than a round table would have been. She chose softwood rather than expensive hardwood, and the wooden planks were recycled from Le Corbusier's temporary building for the 1937 World's Fair, the Pavillon des Temps nouveaux. "The free form embodies her open spirit and is simultaneously a rejection of the fascist aesthetics of symmetrical formal language and control," Baudin notes.
Perriand's collaborative works include the famous Grand confort armchair (1928), created together with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, which became one of the most influential furniture designs of the 20th century. Her approach consistently demonstrated that she was not merely following trends but creating innovative solutions that balanced aesthetic appeal with practical functionality.
Regarding what contemporary society can learn from Charlotte Perriand, Baudin emphasizes that "design is more than form and function – it is a means to improve people's daily lives and assume social responsibility." Perriand's attitude of curiosity and optimism serves as an exemplary model. She remained open to young generations, learned from others, and always looked forward. Most importantly, she was convinced that every person possesses creative potential, a belief that infused all her work with democratic ideals and accessibility.
The exhibition demonstrates how Perriand's vision of modular, flexible living solutions and her commitment to making quality design accessible to broad segments of the population remain strikingly relevant today. Her projects for minimal housing and prefabricated weekend homes, intended to make leisure and quality living affordable for wide population segments, exemplify her commitment to making architecture and design accessible to everyone. Through this comprehensive retrospective, the Krefeld Art Museums illuminate not just Perriand's artistic legacy but also her enduring influence on contemporary approaches to sustainable, human-centered design.
