André Bloc - Design London Tuesday, November 9, 2021 | Phillips

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  • 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  CREDIT: Plaisir de France, June 1953 / Dominique Darbois
    The present model desk in André Bloc’s Villa Bellevue in Meudon, France 
    Plaisir de France, June 1953 / Dominique Darbois
    • Provenance

      Private collection, France
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Literature

      Gilles Quéant, 'Tradition et Rupture',Plaisir de France, June 1953, Paris, pp. 26-29
      'Programmes Particuliers', L'Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, October 1953, Paris, pp. 33, 36

202

Free-form Boomerang desk, designed for the Villa Bellevue, Meudon, France

circa 1951
Oak, oak-veneered wood.
70.5 x 221.4 x 155 cm (27 3/4 x 87 1/8 x 61 in.)

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£20,000 - 30,000 Ω

Sold for £69,300

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
Antonia.King@phillips.com

Design

London Auction 9 November 2021