A catalogue documenting two exhibitions of works by Alexander Calder and Jean Prouvé at Gagosian Gallery, Paris, and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris. Calder and Prouvé met in the early 1950s. They corresponded regularly between Calder’s frequent trips to Paris, exchanging ideas on architecture and sculpture. In 1958, Calder collaborated with Prouvé to construct the steel base of La Spirale, a monumental mobile for the UNESCO site in Paris. Letters between the two are illustrated and reprinted in the catalogue.

Calder/Prouvé evokes comparisons in the broad, expressive range of production, emphasis on form, and use of new technologies that the close friends and collaborators evinced in their parallel practices as artist and designer. Considered together, the works in this book testify to the fruitful exchange between two giants of modernism in its most utopian aspirations. Calder works in the book include mobiles, stabiles, and a suite of thirty little-known animal drawings, while Prouvé is represented by rare examples of furniture and architecture including two prefabricated structures. Calder’s invention of the mobile resonated with both early Conceptual and Constructivist art as well as the language of early abstract painting. Prouvé is widely acknowledged as one of the twentieth century’s most influential industrial designers, with a wide-ranging oeuvre that brought a strong social conscience to bold elegant design within an economy of means. Never-before-published letters between Calder and Prouve are illustarted and reprinted in the catalogue.

About the Author:

Annie Cohen-Solal is a French academic and writer. She is the author of a biography on Sartre, Jean-Paul Sarte: A Life and Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli. Jean Nouvel is a French architect. He was a recipient of the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 2008, recognizing his work on over 200 projects.

Shapes of Things to Come. Jean Prouvé’s economical elegance

French architect and designer Jean Prouvé innovated crisp, economical construction designs, marrying inexpensive materials and mass production with aesthetic elegance and technical brilliance. His simple, graceful style is an inimitable expression of midcentury innovation, expansion, and growth, and secured his place as one of the century’s most influential designers.

French-born Jean Prouvé (1901–1984) was the 20th century’s leading construction designer, a self-declared constructeur and member of the jury who oversaw the design of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. As a designer, he captured the midcentury spirit of innovation, expansion, and growth, developing techniques that united simple, striking aesthetics with practical, cost-effective materials and assembly.

From vast, temporary exhibition marquees to handheld letter openers, modular building systems to interior lighting, Prouvé’s designs efficiently fitted their function with minimal fuss and understated elegance. Feted by designers, architects, and engineers the world over, Prouvé has left a rich and inspirational legacy, which resonates perfectly with the approach of this compact volume, neatly summarizing his life and works.

The author:

Nils Peters studied art history at the University of Hamburg, architecture at TFH Berlin, and urban sociology at Columbia University in New York. He has taught, published, and exhibited on the subject of architecture and has had his own practice since 1998.

The editor:

Peter Gössel runs an agency for museum and exhibition design. He has published TASCHEN monographs on Julius Shulman, R. M. Schindler, John Lautner, and Richard Neutra, as well as several titles in the Basic Architecture series.

About the series:

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. 

Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Architecture series features:

- an introduction to the life and work of the architect
- the major works in chronological order
- information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions
- a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings
- approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts, and plans)

Utilitarian simplicity and graceful beauty

The inspirational vision of Jean Prouvé

French architect and designer Jean Prouvé (1901–1984) was one of the most important constructors of the 20th century. Prouvé’s design innovations included cleverly-shaped metal parts for building prefabricated structures; he designed buildings and furniture that could be produced with economy of labor and material and efficiency in use, while maintaining high technical standards and quality materials. His simple and elegant style, while born from the desire for inexpensive production, has become an imitable aesthetic and has earned him a position as one of the century’s most influential designers.

This introduction to Prouvé’s work gives a profound insight into the variety of his œuvre and the progressiveness of his inspirational vision.

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture Series features:

an introduction to the life and work of the architect
the major works in chronological order
information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions
a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings
approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts and plans)

The editor:
Peter Gössel runs an agency for museum and exhibition design. For TASCHEN he published monographs on Julius Shulman, R.M. Schindler, John Lautner and Richard Neutra as well as several titles in the Basic Architecture Series.

The author:
Nils Peters studied art history at the University of Hamburg, architecture at TFH Berlin, and urban sociology at Columbia University in New York. He has taught, published, and exhibited on the subject of architecture and has had his own practice since 1998.

French architect and designer Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) was one of the most important constructors of the 20th century. Prouvé's design innovations included cleverly-shaped metal parts for building prefabricated structures; he designed buildings and furniture that could be produced with economy of labor and material and efficiency in use, while maintaining high technical standards and quality materials. His simple and elegant style, while born from the desire for inexpensive production, has become an imitable aesthetic and has earned him a position as one of the century`s most influential designers.

This introduction to Prouvé`s work gives a profound insight into the variety of his oeuvre and the progressiveness of his inspirational vision.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture Series features:

• approximately 120 images, including photographs, sketches, drawings, and floor plans
• introductory essays exploring the architect's life and work, touching on family and background as well as collaborations with other architects
• the most important works presented in chronological order, with descriptions of client and/or architect wishes as well as construction problems and resolutions
• an appendix including a list of complete or selected works, biography, bibliography, and a map indicating the locations of the architect's most famous buildings