Heritage

We don’t necessarily have to make a clean break from the past! Contemporary French design is integrated in the great history of the decorative arts and often reshuffles codes as in a Louis XV style (the 570 chest of drawers by Moissonnier) or post-war modernism (the Saturne armchair by Geneviève Dangles and Christian Defrance, reissued by Burov-Leleu). Sometimes, inspiration is not as direct, leaving room for a less literal interpretation. Nourished by this history, the task could seem deceptively easy as with the crystal and chrome metal Apollo ceiling lamp that Godefroy de Virieu and Stéfania di Petrillo created for Saint-Louis, or it could veer off in another direction as with Ludovic Clément d’Armont who worked with skilled glassblowers to create the Lune lamp, a reproduction of the moon. All are lively illustrations of how the past can nourish creativity.