The question of what makes a great artist – or the word I prefer, creator – is something that has troubled people for centuries, from the vast empires of Rome and Greece to the modern-day, Facebook generation. True, empires rise and fall, Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest will be (relatively) soon replaced by more advanced, ingenious concepts; but one fundamental concept that most artists agree on is that great art and great ideas stand the test of time. The work of art polymath Andrée Putman is no exception to this.
Much as popular opinion would suggest the contrary, being born into a life of privilege does not in any way lessen the gravity of one’s choices. Born into a wealthy family of bankers and notables from Lyon in 1925, Putman (née Aynard) was under tremendous pressure to make a mark on society and to build influence. Her father was a graduate from the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure and spoke seven languages, while her mother was a concert pianist.
Queen of Understated Elegance
The musical talent of her mother washed off on the young Aynard and it soon became apparent that she too was destined for a career in classical piano. At the age of nineteen, she entered the famous Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSMDP) where she later received the First Harmony Prize from legendary French composer Francis Poulenc. Her musical career, however, was to be cut short. Despite obvious talent, making her name as a composer was a tremendously hard feat; especially given the level and prestige of French classical composition at the time. Indeed, a professor is said to have commented ‘You are very talented, but we will only know in ten years if you are a great composer.’ With that and a bike accident at the age of twenty that almost left Aynard paralyzed, she left the world of classical music to discover other forms of art and self-expression.
The decision to leave school was not well-received by members of her influential and powerful family. Indeed, upon hearing that Aynard had left the CNSMDP her grandmother (socialite Madeleine Saint-René Taillandier) remarked “What can one do when one did not go to school and is a musician who stopped playing music? Nothing except messenger.” Taking heed of her family’s advice, the young Andrée began working for Elle and L’Oeil, a prestigious art magazine, where began to study artistic styles and movements.
She was “impressed by… artists who do not look for anything else but remaining in the depth of their sincerity, their risk”
This transition from music to art was unsurprising, given both the relationship between the two disciplines and Aynard’s upbringing. Working for the magazines allowed Andrée Putman to meet and network with artists such as Pierre Alechinsky, Bram van Velde and Alberto Giacometti, which deepened her knowledge of the community and popular art of the time. Indeed, her ability to pick out emerging art-forms became well-known. She was “impressed by…artists who do not look for anything else but remaining in the depth of their sincerity, their risk.”
She married art critic and publisher Jacques Putman in the late 1950’s. Soon after, the newly-named Putman became Art Director at French chain Prisunic, where her vision of making art available to the wider public became a reality. From this collaboration, Putman refined the motto ‘designing things for nothing’; a minimalist ideology that later fed into her famous designs. In 1971, she and Didier Grumbach founded a new company ‘Créateurs & Industriels’. From here they went on to build the profile of now-renowned figures, such as Issey Miyake, Ossie Clark, and Thierry Mugler. It was with the creation of this company that Putman made the final transition into interior design: by designing the former SNCF premises into a showroom and offices for the company.
The glory-days were short-lived. In the late 1970’s a divorce and bankruptcy of Créateurs & Industriels sent Putman into isolation and depression. To symbolize her extreme sadness, she forced herself to live in complete austerity; furnishing her room with a bed and two lamps. This, she commented, was “because I no longer knew what I liked.” As it happens, with grief and sadness comes renewed success. She soon went back to her long-held passion of giving life to forgotten designers from the 1930s, Herbst, Jean-Michel Frank, Gaudi and Eileen Gray amongst others. Driven by her loathing of “pompous luxury” and a desire to strip things to the bare essentials, her taste was catching on in the wider art community.
In 1984, Putman landed a project that was to redefine her entire life – to redesign the Morgans Hotel in New York. Her success led to many more collaborations: hotels such as Le Lac in Japan and the Sheraton in Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and stores for Azzedine Alaia, Balenciaga, Bally and Lagerfeld.
In 1997, she created her eponymous Agence Andrée Putman, which specialised in interior and product design. In 2007, her daughter Olivia Putman took over as Art Director, much to the delight of the whole family. Two years later, the partners present the chair they designed for an American furniture company, based on the design-style of Morgans Hotel. Aptly, it was named ‘The Morgans Chair’.
Robust and Elegant, the Morgans Chair.
As much as design and art continues to evolve and change, it is with the vision of women like Andrée Putman that history lives on. In an age of phenomenal technological growth, we are in danger of losing history on new generations that are distracted by social networking. With this sheer influx of information, we are also in danger of losing the same minimalist and undisturbed life that allows our minds and ideas to flourish. Despite being born into a world of phenomenal privilege, Putman’s legacy is one that reflects ethereal, basic elements life. This is a concept that is central to innovation, not just in art or design or in music but in experiencing life to the full.
To this day she continues to work with her daughter at the Agence Andrée Putman Parisian Office.
~ Words by victoria@swiveluk.com.
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