The "other" Louvre

The “other” Louvre

The I.M. Pei redesign of the entrance to the Louvre is well known to anyone who has seen the Dan Brown novel turned movie, "The Da Vinci Code".  What they may not know is that the inverse point of the pyramid terminates in the central square of a high-end shopping mall, featuring retailers from Lalique crystal to a premiere Apple retail store. There's also a massive food court of ethnic cuisine including Lebanese, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, American, Italian, French and more. 

The Louvre complex, it turns out, is also more than simply a fine arts museum, there’s a separate wing (and separate entrance fee) at the eastern end of the Tuileries Garden that’s dedicated mostly to fine furniture and other objects of art through the ages, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

While there was plenty of ornate and exceptionally beautiful work produced by craftsmen from the Middle ages to present day at the museum, it’s the Art Deco (1920’s or so) pieces and Mid-century modern (1950’s and ‘60’s) that I particularly enjoy. Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray (Charles’ wife) Eames, Eileen Gray, Harry Bertoia, Frances Knoll, are particular favorites. These are iconic designers that didn’t rely on decoration to make their pieces interesting. They redefined the entire structure of the piece to make a visually unique, yet practical piece of furniture. It’s also nice that so many of these pieces are still manufactured and commonly available today though they are in fact, museum quality art.

Mid-century furniture designers created a true inflection point in furniture design. A chair no longer had to have four legs or even legs at all. Construction materials now included metal and plastic in addition to wood, fabric and leather. Colors could come from any palette and could be used as a single piece counterpoint to more traditional furniture ensembles or used to reinforce the calming character of the clean and simple forms of a room composed of only modern furniture. They are equally relevant in historical buildings, reclaimed non-traditional living spaces such as commercial lofts, or almost any decorating motif except early American knotty pine or faux Tartan plaids.

While many feel that modern decorating is cold or harsh, for many of us it is precisely that lack of ornamentation that lets the piece reveal the elegance of the solution to its function in daily life. Though they often look insubstantial and uncomfortable, mid-century modern designs are typically some of the most comfortable and durable ever made.

Demonstrating precisely this point, there is a room in the museum set up with several of the displayed pieces where you are invited to sit and watch a number of movie clips where the pieces were key parts of the movie set. Eileen found just the right spot to rest her legs surrounded by an acrylic very personal and isolated environment… not too much different from a private nest suspended from the ceiling. I chose one of my favorites, the molded plywood and leather Eames chair and ottoman.

Not all the exhibits are about chairs. Ornate precision woodwork whether it’s fitted veneers or precision cut and sanded solids, make for rather spectacular cases, beds, tables and screens.

This intricate metal bed was impressive enough that it got it’s own room. But the  carved wooden lounge (for want of a better word) got it’s own room and period scenery to boot!

Fine examples of glass and metal vases and boxes (of every size) are featured as well.

Fabulous examples of ornate clocks are included in the collections. The stone clock is a Cartier design.

Since we were unfamiliar with the featured special exhibit artist (which also required yet another additional fee to see so we declined) our view was limited to the installation’s total remapping of the exhibit space with a perforated wall and dome ceiling… talk about a major installation!

You may have thought I’ve forgotten the Art Deco pieces. Au contraire! This carved wood music room cabinet and the inlaid curio cabinet just can’t be ignored.

The decorative chest and screen are simply magnificent. Even the entire period dining room reconstruction is indefinably impressive and memorable.

 

Or how about a blown glass and cast metal chandelier surpassed only by the all Murano blown cane glass masterpiece.

While there is little period jewelry to be seen, this engaging necklace has all the visual tricks of an Escher etching. It looks like it’s a highly three dimensional piece despite the fact that it essentially a string of nearly flat rectangles.

To finish the day I couldn't resist reducing this staircase into a series of monochrome geometric shapes creating a bit of Escher-like changes in depth perception myself.