Pierre Paulin

Born in Paris in 1927, Pierre Paulin spent his childhood in Laon. He acquired his passion for design from his great-uncle Freddy Stoll, a sculptor, and his uncle Georges Paulin, a car designer (Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc.) He became a student at the École Camondo in 1947, graduating in 1950. After studying with Maxime Old, he joined Marcel Gascoin’s design office5. In 1953, success came with the Salon des arts ménagers, and he began a collaboration with Thonet France6. In 1953, he exhibited his first creations in the “Le Foyer d’aujourd’hui” section of the Salon des arts ménagers. Paulin’s influences were Scandinavian furniture and the American designs of Charles Eames and Florence Knoll. In 1954, Thonet France began publishing Pierre Paulin furniture. In 1958, Maastricht-based furniture publisher Artifort decided to focus on contemporary furniture, and assembled a team of designers including Pierre Paulin. From 1960 to 1970, Pierre Paulin developed a range of chairs for Artifort, featuring molded wooden shells filled with Pirelli foam and upholstered with prefabricated stretch fabric covers, in soft, rounded shapes and bright colors. Among these iconic chairs: Mushroom Model No. 560 (1960), Tongue chair Model No. 577 (1967), Ribbon chair Model No. 582 (1966)7. In 2008, he was elected to the Académie des Hauts Cantons.
Pierre Paulin is a French designer. His talent lies in his shift from decoration to design, which was typical of post-war France, and in the materials used to make his seats. These are upholstered in foam and covered in jersey. He is one of the “greatest designers of his time” and the subject of numerous books and retrospectives.