OPENING OF A NEW GALLERY SPACE
19, avenue Matignon Paris 8 – January 2019
Galerie Jacques Lacoste opened its second venue, located 19 avenue Matignon, on the Right bank.
This quintessentially Parisian avenue, a few meters away from the Elysée Palace, is central in a neighbourhood which brings together auction houses, art galleries and luxury hotels. Jacques Lacoste was keen to settle in this bustling area, while maintaining his original gallery located on the Left bank, 12 rue de Seine in the Saint-Germain-des-Près area.
The new venue, consisting in a 500-square-meters showroom on three levels, includes “Period rooms” and temporary exhibitions, keeping up with the approach developed by Jacques Lacoste over the years on the gallery’s booths at major fairs such as the Paris Biennale, PAD Paris, PAD London or Design Miami/Basel. These international events were the perfect opportunity to unveil exceptional items such as the Books Room and other furniture designed by Diego Giacometti for Marc Barbezat (Design Miami/ Basel 2016), an extraordinary table together with a set of Art Nouveau pieces by Hector Guimard (PAD Paris 2017), a rare 1920s set by Süe and Mare (PAD Paris 2018), or 1930s Modernist furniture (Design Miami/Basel 2018).
This contextualised approach enables viewers to see coherent sets of furniture and decorative objects. It thus contributes to illustrating important periods in decorative arts history, from the early days of Art Nouveau to the 1950s-60s, exemplified by iconic pieces by the greatest names of the 20th century.
Galerie Jacques Lacoste made its name with Jean Royère: the gallery keeps part of the archives and greatly participated in rekindling interest in the designer, alongside with other talents, such as Max Ingrand, Alexandre Noll and Serge Mouille. Jacques Lacoste also intends to highlight the work of designers who contributed to the history of architecture, furniture and the decorative arts, whether famous members of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) such as Robert Mallet-Stevens, René Herbst, Pierre Chareau, Jean Prouvé; or celebrated interior designers from the 1930s such as Jean-Michel Frank, Jacques Emile Ruhlmann or Paul Dupré Lafon.
The gallery promotes the best of 20th-century design, and contributes to the literature on the subject, by publishing monographs and yearly catalogues.