Jacques Adnet - Magazine rack - Clenched fist - Iron

Jacques Adnet (1900-1984)

Magazine rack in black lacquered metal and brass

Model with clenched fist

Brass stars on the front and back, the clenched fist in gilded bronze for the grip

Height: 43 cm
Length: 28.5 cm
Depth: 21 cm

Very good condition, wear

*Jacques Adnet was born in 1900 in Châtillon-Coligny, France.
On the advice of one of his professors, he entered the entrance exam for the School of Decorative Arts in 1916, where he joined, warmly received, with his twin brother Jean. His teachers included Aubert for decoration and Genuys for architecture; the teaching of the former would be influential in Adnet’s later work. Not wishing to confine himself to theory, diploma in hand, he was hired by decorators Tony Selmersheim and Maurice Dufrène, where he learned the art and technique of furniture making; it was Dufrène whom he followed when he was appointed director at “La Maîtrise” of the Galeries Lafayette in 1922. At the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925, Jacques Adnet and his brother exhibited ceramics on La Maîtrise’s stand. They received numerous awards, including a gold medal in the furniture class and a silver medal in the ceramic class. In 1927 Jacques Adnet won the Blumenthal Prize. In 1928 Jacques Adnet became the director of the prestigious Compagnie des Arts Français, whose motto was “Evolution within tradition.” The young 28-year-old designer sought to give the company a different orientation. Even the logo created in 1919 was redesigned in a completely modernist spirit; the tone was set. As a man of his century, Jacques Adnet sought to establish links between decoration and the new inventions of photography, cinema, electricity, cars, or airplanes. He gathered within his company a remarkable team of painters, including Lurçat, Chagall, Dufy or Léger; decorators such as Charlotte Perriand, Francis Jourdain, or René Gabriel; but also glassmakers, metalworkers and jewelers, ceramists, blacksmiths or sculptors, such as Goupy, Daurat, Bouquet, Lenoble, Poillerat, Yencesse, or the Giacometti brothers – whose decorative works he published after the death of Jean-Michel Frank. Adnet’s style is characterized by a successful marriage of modern aesthetics with traditional craftsmanship. His favored materials are chromed or nickel-plated metal, mirror-backed glass, Saint-Gobain glass tiles, Baccarat crystal, parchment, black lacquered wood or opaline. Jacques Adnet was one of the first to employ glass and metal in the making of objects, lighting fixtures, furniture, or in architecture, as he, in collaboration with architect René Coulon, built the Saint-Gobain Pavilion for the 1937 Exposition of Arts and Techniques. After his modernist creations of the 1930s and his sumptuous exotic wood or lacquered furniture of the 1940s, Jacques Adnet created, in the 1950s, furniture, lighting and objects in cuir or faux leather veneer. For several decades he produced entire ensembles for private individuals, for Côte d’Azur palace hotels, and for the Ferdinand de Lesseps liner in 1952; he also decorated the study and private apartments of Vincent Auriol at Rambouillet Castle and the Élysée. His most famous clients include billionaire Frank Jay Gould, actress Alice Cocéa, director Marcel Carné, or writer Georges Simenon. Rather than fashion or showbiz personalities, he frequently had as clients intellectuals seeking discretion, which suited him perfectly. In 1959 he closed the Compagnie des Arts Français and became director of the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, a post he held until 1970. Retired, he devoted himself to his other passions: poetry and gardening. He died in Paris in 1984."} } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } } }