ARTIFORT CHAIR SECTION
[Artifort] Turner Ltd.
[Artifort] Turner Ltd.: ARTIFORT CHAIR SECTION. n. p. [The Netherlands]: Artifort, 1976. Original edition. Slim quarto. Thick perfect bound and stitched printed wrappers. 32 pp. Fully illustrated in color. Product designs and specifications. Finely printed in the Netherlands with specific contact information via Turner Ltd. in New York City. Front hinge tender. Lightly handled but a very good or better copy.
8.25 x 11.5 sales brochure with 32 colorfully illustrated pages of Artifort chair designs. Curatorial information includes materials, finishes, and dimensions. I suspect this information could be useful to somebody out there in the soft universe.
Includes chair designs by Pierre Paulin, Geoffrey D. Harcourt, and the Artifort Design Group.
Pierre Paulin (France, 1927 – 2009) was born in Paris in 1927 and studied stone carving and clay modeling at the École Camondo in the early 1950s. He is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Artifort, which began in 1958 and lasted approximately half a century. This relationship resulted in several iconic pieces, including his famed Mushroom Chair (1959), Ribbon Chair (1966), and Tongue Chair (1968).
Paulin was also commissioned by Le Mobilier National to decorate the private apartments of President George Pompidou at the Palais de L’Elysee in 1970, and again, in 1983, to furnish the office of Francois Mitterand. Paulin’s work was influenced by his German roots, the early modernists, and, in particular, by American designers Charles and Ray Eames. His pieces are in the permanent collections of multiple esteemed institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Centre George Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. The French president Sarkozy honoured him as "the man who made design an art". In November 2009, Paulin was posthumously awarded the distinction of "Royal Designer for Industry" (RDI).
The foundations of Artifort were laid by Jules Wagemans when he set up business as an upholsterer in Maastricht in 1890. His son, Henricus Wagemans, expanded the company into a furniture factory, which had a showroom in Amsterdam by the end of the nineteen twenties and was already well known nationally.
The economic recession of the nineteen-thirties forced H. Wagemans & Van Tuinen, as the furniture company was then known, to create a distinctive profile. Developing a catchy brand name and logo was a start. And naturally the furniture had to be distinctive too. The emphasis came to lie on functionality, comfort and quality combined with aesthetically pleasing design and an innovative use of materials.
In 1928 the new brand name was introduced: Artifort, derived from the Latin word ‘ars’ meaning art or knowledge, and ‘fortis’ meaning strong or powerful. The word ‘comfort’ is also reflected in this brand name.
Artifort’s breakthrough came at the beginning of the nineteen-thirties when the company started to use Epeda interior springing. Up until then, straw, horsehair and kapok has been used as filling materials, sometimes in combination with iron springing. Upholstering furniture with these materials was extremely labour-intensive. Epeda interior springing offered an attractive alternative and Artifort managed to acquire a licence to the Epeda patent. What was special about this interior springing, which was already being used in mattresses and car seats, was that it was woven from a single steel wire. Epeda interior springing combines a high level of comfort with great durability. Moreover, using this interior springing provided a major saving in production time.
A great deal changed with the arrival of the interior and furniture designer Kho Liang Ie. His forward-looking view, his great knowledge of design and his international contacts were not only determining factors in the successes of the nineteen-sixties and seventies but have continued to exert their influence up to this day.
Artifort and Kho Liang Ie introduced talked-about designs and together ensured that the name Artifort became a runaway success internationally, both with architects and lovers of design. In 1959, Kho Liang Ie recruited the French designer Pierre Paulin, who introduced new techniques and constructions. He also designed a new logo for Artifort with Harry Sierman.
Paulin’s designs were fresh and innovative. His striking, brightly coloured seating sculptures raised eyebrows at home and abroad. Right up to today, they are regarded as the face of the Artifort collection. To produce these designs, a new construction method was introduced in collaboration with Artifort’s development department. Artifort started to work with foamcovered metal tube frames and stretch fabrics. In 1967 Paulin met Jack Lenor Larsen and together they formed a golden duo. In fact they changed the way in which the world viewed design, in terms of form, materials and textiles. Now, forty years later, Artifort has resumed production of the fabric Momentum exclusively for Paulin’s designs.
At the beginning of the nineteen-sixties, Artifort started to focus more on the international contract market. The English designer Geoffrey D. Harcourt designed an extensive collection of contract furniture. Internationally, the furniture seemed to be very much in demand, which resulted in enormous sales growth in a short time. Artifort extended its activities in the contract market even further by distributing furniture made by the Italian Castelli company, among others.