The French sculptor, architect and editor André Bloc designed the model of this distinctly sculptural desk for his villa-atelier in Meudon, France. The Villa Bellevue and its garden were also designed by Bloc and bear the mark of his interdisciplinary approach to design. Built in concrete and glass, with colourful interiors and impressive outdoor sculptures, the villa and the present model desk were featured in the June 1953 issue of the French cultural review Plaisir de France. The publication describes how ‘through large windows the light floods the interior with light and the garden seeps in from all sides.’
After starting his career as an engineer in motor and turbine factories, Bloc’s artistic practice was influenced by his early 1920s encounters with architects such as Le Corbusier and August Perret, which shifted his work towards having an evident architectural quality. In 1930, he founded the influential review L'Architecure d'Aujourd'hui and later formed the ‘Groupe Espace’, a collection of artists and designers including Jean Prouvé and Sonia Delaunay who advocated the synthesis of art with architecture.
The present model desk in André Bloc’s Villa Bellevue in Meudon, France Plaisir de France, June 1953 / Dominique Darbois Provenance
Galerie du Passage, Paris
Tajan, Paris, "Design," November 7, 2018, lot 48
Magen H Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present ownerLiterature
Gilles Quéant, "Tradition et Rupture," Plaisir de France, Paris, June 1953, cover, pp. 26-29
"Programmes Particuliers," L'Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, October 1953, pp. 33, 36
Property from a Private New York Collection
108
"Boomerang" desk and chair, designed for the Villa Bellevue, Meudon, France
circa 1951
Oak, oak-veneered wood, beech.
Desk: 27 1/8 x 87 x 66 3/4 in. (68.9 x 221 x 169.5 cm)
Chair: 31 1/2 x 18 1/4 x 19 in. (80 x 46.4 x 48.3 cm)
Estimate
$25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $33,020
Patrizia Koenig
Specialist, Associate Vice President, Modern & Contemporary Art
+1 212 940 1279
pkoenig@phillips.com
Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist, Design
Head of Sale
+1 917 207 9090
bgreen@phillips.com
FREESTYLE: Living with Art & Design, Property from a Private New York Collection
New York Auction 5 June 2024
129
This lot is no longer available.
147
This lot is no longer available.
