Wartime Gilt: French Furniture of the '40s - exhibit of French furniture made just before, during, and after World War II

Art in America, Sept, 1999 by Michele C. Cone

[1.] Of Jacques Adnet, the critic Louis Cheronnet is quoted as saying: "In a harsh epoch that seems to be guided by materialist exigencies, disorder and hatred, he contributes the merry and confident music of a French heart." Bruno Foucart and Jean-Louis Gaillemin, Les Dorateurs des annees 40, Paris, Editions NORMA 1998, p.67. All translations are by the author.

[2.] Michele C. Cone, "Decadence and Renewal in the Decorative Arts under Vichy," in Matthew Affron and Mark Antliff, eds., Fascist Visions: Art and Ideology in France and Italy, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 248-54.

[3.] Foucart and Gaillemin, p. 57.

[4.] The question of ornament is discussed in Anne-Marie Sankovitch, "Structure/Ornament and the Modern Figuration of Architecture," The Art Bulletin, December 1998, p. 704.

[5.] These designers' most loyal clients were fashion houses. During the Occupation years, Marcelle Alix called on Andre Arbus to redecorate her shop. See Foucart and Gaillemin, p. 78.

[6.] Waldemar George, in Formes d'aujourd'hui, Galerie de l'rofevrerie Christofle, 1945, n.p.

[7.] Jean Charles Moreux was named chief architect for French national palaces and chateaux in 1944, and the French state commissioned him to redecorate French embassies and to preside over renovations of the Louvre. Foucart and Gaillemin, p. 152.

[8.] Quoted in Foucart and Gaillemin, p. 92.

[9.] Alone among the 21 decorators included in the Boulogne exhibition, Jules Leleu suffered from his activities during the war. His name appears in the Journal Officiel (June 15, 1956) among those condemned by the Comite national d'epuration a l'encontre des peintres, decorateurs, sculpteurs et graveurs. He was forbidden to exhibit and to sell for one year, starting Sept. 1, 1944. This measure did not affect him materially, as it was retroactively applied.

[10.] My Ph.D. thesis on the subject was published as Artists under Vichy: A Case of Prejudice and Persecution (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1992) in an atmosphere of controversy.

[11.] Philippe de Villiers and Charles Pasqua are right-wing politicians from the Hauts-de-Seine region that Includes Boulogne, as is Jean-Marie Le Pen from neighboring St. Cloud.

Copyright [C] 1999 by Michele C. Cone

"Les Decorateurs des annees 40" appeared at the Centre Culturel de la Ville de Boulogne. Billancourt (Nov. 17, 1908-Jan. 16, 1999) and did not travel It was accompanied by a catalogue with essays by Bruno Foucart and Jean-Louis Gaillemin.

Author: Michele C. Cone teaches ideas in art at the School of Visual Arts, N.Y. A collection of her essays on art and right-wing politics in France between 1937 and 1968 is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.