The Jewish Museum presents the first U.S. exhibition focused on French designer and architect Pierre Chareau (1883–1950). The exhibition designed by interdisciplinary studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), which makes a great tribute to French architect Pierre Chareau's modern designs. Titled Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, the retrospective exhibition will be on view between November 4, 2016 and through March 26, 2017 at Jewish Museum in New York. 

Through various forms of technology – video projections, virtual reality, digital installations, and film are used within the exhibition galleries, DS+R has created atmospheric scenes that convey imagined functional and social contexts for Chareau’s work.

Pierre Chareau (French, 1883-1950) and Bernard Bijvoet (Dutch, 1889-1979), Maison de Verre, 1928-1932. Image © Mark Lyon

Showcasing rare furniture, lighting fixtures, and interiors, as well as designs for the extraordinary Maison de Verre, the glass house completed in Paris in 1932, the exhibition is bringing together over 180 rarely-seen works from major public and private collections in Europe and the United States. 

It will also address Chareau’s life and work in the New York area, after he left Paris during the German occupation of the city, including the house he designed for Robert Motherwell in 1947 in East Hampton, Long Island. Drawings, ephemeral material, and archival photographs will provide contextual background to Chareau’s activities in France and the United States.

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. 

Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design is organized into four main sections. The first section, which is devoted to Chareau’s furniture designs, showcases six groupings of furniture created by the architect for a variety of living spaces; video projections create the illusion of their social uses. The second section, which looks at Pierre and Dollie Chareau as art collectors, features works of art once owned by them or used in interiors designed by him. 

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

In the third section, virtual reality is used to imagine four spaces designed by Chareau. The fourth and last section is devoted to his architectural masterpiece, the Maison de Verre in Paris, which is partially recreated in a digital installation. Through these interpretive concepts and tools, exhibition visitors will experience two fused dimensions – the actual objects in the museum space, and the digital and projected overlays in virtual reality.

''Design exhibitions are central to the Jewish Museum’s program,'' said Claudia Gould, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director. ''This exhibition brings together the work of two great innovators: Pierre Chareau and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. By collaborating with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, whose ability to integrate technology with art and design is unparalleled, the Jewish Museum is creating an especially rich and dynamic experience for our visitors.''

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Commenting on Chareau’s work and the exhibition design, DS+R’s founding partner, Elizabeth Diller, noted, ''Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design is an opportunity to return to a significant figure in every architect’s education, but one primarily known through only one masterwork, the Maison de Verre. This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see so much of Chareau’s creative output brought together in one place. The challenge in undertaking its design was to provide a multi-faceted and imaginative backdrop that would highlight, but not compete with, his exceptional mastery of detailing and assemblage. By engaging with Chareau’s furniture, interiors, and collected ephemera, we are able to absorb and represent his idiosyncratic voice, which has had relatively little exposure in the U.S.''

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

When designing the Pierre Chareau exhibition, Diller Scofidio + Renfro deployed various forms of technology, new media, and virtual reality. In the first section, which examines the use and aesthetics of Chareau’s furniture, DS+R uses projection and strategically situated screens to create the illusion that, in addition to the museum-going public, a ghostly population is also present.

In the third section, where entire interior environments are imagined digitally, the visitor’s initial impression is of the furniture situated in a black void. Once viewed through the virtual reality headsets, the four environments are revealed: (1) the study in the Chareau residence, Paris; (2) the Farhi Apartment, Paris; (3) the Grand Salon of the Maison de Verre, Paris; and (4) the garden of the Maison de Verre.

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

In the final gallery, DS+R created a dynamic yet impossible perspective of Chareau’s Maison de Verre, a modern townhouse in a dense urban setting for which no actual entire view exists. Here, a large-scale digital installation allows visitors to experience different sections of the Glass House as if moving through it. 

Left to right: Pierre Chareau, telephone fan table, c. 1924, wood. Private collection, New York; Pierre Chareau, Two high-backed chauffeuses (fireside armchairs), c. 1925, wood and velours, with tapestry upholstery by Jean Lurçat, reupholstered 1968. Private collection. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

This installation is overlaid with films that show the Maison de Verre “in operation,” functionally and socially. It provides a new, working encounter with the architectural icon, and reveals the story of how the house accommodates its inhabitants through an extraordinary interplay of mechanical and circulation systems, and against the backdrop of its dramatic glass block and steel structure.

Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design is presented by the Jewish Museum in collaboration with The Centre Pompidou. The exhibition is organized by Guest Curator Esther da Costa Meyer, Professor of the history of modern architecture, Princeton University, assisted by Claudia Nahson, Morris & Eva Feld Curator, The Jewish Museum. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Installation view of the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, November 4, 2016 – March 26, 2017, at The Jewish Museum, NY. Image © Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com. Exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Folding chair (MC763), 1927, designed by Pierre Chareau, metal and paint, 29 1⁄2 × 31 1⁄2 × 14 1⁄8 in. (75 × 80 × 36 cm). Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre de Creation Industrielle. Paris. [Anonymous] gift in 2008. Photograph by Bertrand Prévost, image provided by CNAC / MNAM / Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, New York

La Religieuse floor lamp (SN31), 1923, designed by Pierre Chareau, alabaster and hammered brass, 67 3⁄8 × 17 3⁄4 × 21 5⁄8 in. (171 × 45 × 55 cm). Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre de Creation Industrielle. Paris. Purchase funded in part by Scaler Foundation in 1995. Photograph by Georges Meguerditchian, image provided by CNAC / MNAM Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, New York.

Corbeille sofa (MP169), 1923, designed by Pierre Chareau (French, 1883-1950) with upholstery designed by Jean Lurçat (French, 1892-1966), velours and tapestry, 231⁄2 × 771⁄4 × 171⁄4 in. (59.7 × 196.1 × 43.9 cm). Audrey Friedman and Haim Manishevitz, Primavera Gallery.

Telephone table (MB152) and Religieuse table lamp, c. 1924, designed by Pierre Chareau (French, 1883-1950). Table: walnut and patinated wrought iron; 31 3⁄4 × 401⁄8 (extended) × 15 in. (80.5 × 102 × 38 cm). Lamp: walnut, patinated wrought iron, and alabaster; 161⁄8 in. (41 cm) high. Collection Dominique Suisse.

Table and bookcase (MB960), c. 1930, designed by Pierre Chareau, walnut and black patinated wrought iron; Bookcase: 36 1⁄2×451⁄4 ×8in.(92.7×114.9×20.3cm); table: 23 1⁄2 in. (59.7 cm) high, 33 3⁄4 in. (85.7 cm) in diameter. Vallois, Paris. Photograph by Ken Collins, image provided by Gallery Vallois America, LLC

Desk, 1925, designed by Pierre Chareau, rosewood veneer on mahogany and oak; 297⁄8 × 551⁄8 × 301⁄4 in. (76 × 140 × 77 cm). Audrey Friedman and Haim Manishevitz, Primavera Gallery.

Daybed (MP102), 1923, designed by Pierre Chareau, rosewood, 33 × 81 × 19 in. (83.8 × 205.7 × 48.3 cm). Galerie Anne-Sophie Duval, Paris. Courtesy of Galerie Dutko.

Bicolor table (MB413), c. 1927, designed by Pierre Chareau, knotty walnut and lacquer; 53 x 39 1/8 x 29 1⁄4 in. (135 x 99.5 x 74 cm.). Paolo and Maddalena Kind Collection, London. Image provided by Prudence Cuming Associates, London.

Pierre Chareau, Sketch for a dining room, 1924. From Jean Badovici, Intérieurs Français. Paris: Éditions Albert Morancé.

Living room in the Paris apartment of Hélène Bernheim, 1923, designed by Pierre Chareau. Image provided by Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

Alcove for Lord & Taylor, New York, 1928, designed by Pierre Chareau. Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Image provided by the Smithsonian Institution.

Top image: Pierre Chareau (French, 1883-1950) and Bernard Bijvoet (Dutch, 1889-1979), Maison de Verre, 1928-1932. Image © Mark Lyon

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