All Photos By Gail

Mushrooms, oysters, tongues, and tulips are some of the iconic shapes French designer Pierre Paulin (1927 – 2009) was best known for creating. Having trained under Parisian designer Marcel Gascion, Paulin was influenced by the Scandinavian aesthetic as well as American pre-fabricated designs by Charles and Ray Eames and Florence Knoll.

Inspired to develop his own brand of accessible luxury, Paulin began designing and manufacturing seats made of molded wood lined with foam padding and fashioned with a stretch elastic jersey fabric for Thonet-France. Paulin’s forward-looking, innovative designs for affordable chairs, divans, and sofas in an array of bright and vivid colors, most notably the Mushroom, Tongue and Ribbon chair, among others, can be found in contemporary art and design collections around the world.

Tongue Chairs and Ribbon Chair (Rear)

Paulin designed his Ribbon Chair (model 582) in 1966, for manufacture in 1967 by Artifort in the Netherlands. It involves a tubular steel frame, latex foam, stretch fabric and a painted wood base.

Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.