Enameled
For this new exhibition, dedicated to mountain furniture, Maison Verrsen will present, from March 7 to April 7 2025, a collection of previously unseen enameled pieces by Charlotte Perriand, created for several residences in Les Arcs between 1969 and 1971.
In these simple interiors, where different types of wood—fir, larch, and Swiss pine—are combined, Perriand chose vibrant and deep colors for the furniture: red, black, white, and blue, using a then-permanent process: enameling on metal.
As she wrote in a manifesto in 1929, entitled "Wood or Metal?", "Metal is to interior design what cement was to architecture. It is a revolution."
The "Enameled" exhibition will offer a more intimate glimpse into Charlotte Perriand's work in interior design for mountain settings.
The enameling workshop in Saint-Maurice, in the Val-de-Marne, handled Charlotte Perriand’s commissions. But in 1970, due to financial constraints related to the progress of the Arc 1600 project, Roger Godino asked her to stop using this furniture. The manufacturing cost was too high. It would be replaced by lacquered metal, lacquered wood, or polyester.
Interspersed with previously unseen prints by Gaston Karquel, photographer and close friend of Charlotte, we will also present other pieces, such as a unique bench for an apartment in a 1600s-era residence, a pedestal table designed and produced in very few copies, for the “Hotel du Golf”.
