Serge Mouille

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Serge Mouille (born December 24, 1922 in Paris , † December 24/25, 1988 in Monthiers ) was a French blacksmith and designer . Today he is mainly known for his minimalist lamp designs in the Série noir collection .

life and work

Three-armed floor lamp by Serge Mouille (Photo: 2014)

At the age of 13, Mouille began training as a silversmith at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art in Paris, which he completed in 1941. He then worked as an assistant to the silversmith and sculptor Gilbert LaCroix. During the Second World War , Mouille joined the Resistance . In 1945 he opened his own blacksmith's workshop and began teaching; again at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art. In the first years after the war, Serge Mouille made a wide variety of objects in his workshop, including banisters, chandeliers and wall lights.

In 1952, Mouille designed the Zèbre sports car together with his friends Pierre Pothier and Jean-Pierre Darnat and manufactured it themselves. The car was presented to the public at the Paris Club du Vieux-Colombier towards the end of the year and caused a sensation with its futuristic design. The following year it was also demonstrated at the Le Mans Grand Prix .

In 1953, Mouille was commissioned by the interior designer Jacques Adnet to design lights for a department store. From then on Mouille dealt intensively with the subject of luminaire design. The designs of the Série noir , created in the course of the 1950s, are minimalist with organically shaped lampshades made of black or white lacquered metal on delicate metal rods. The shape of the lampshade is inspired by the female breast and was nicknamed tétine by Mouille , meaning teat. Due to its shape, the lampshade has favorable properties in terms of light emission and was usually installed by Mouille in such a way that it can be easily rotated in different directions. From 1956, his works were shown mainly in the Steph Simon Gallery in Paris, where objects based on designs by Jean Prouvé , Isamu Noguchi and Charlotte Perriand were also sold. From 1955, Serge Mouille - inspired by the then new neon tube - designed a series of table and floor lamps in the shape of steles that used vertically mounted neon tubes as a light source.

In February 1959, Serge Mouille married Gin Baty. Plagued by a recurring tuberculosis since his youth , he ended his design work in 1963 and from then on concentrated on teaching. Two years later, the production of the lights was also stopped. In 1976 Mouille was awarded the Médaille de la Ville de Paris in the Arts and Crafts category. In 1988 the Center Pompidou showed six of his lamps in the exhibition Les années 50 and he was honored as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres . In the same year, Serge Mouille died on the night after Christmas Eve of complications from his tuberculosis.

Today, numerous designs by Serge Mouille are being produced again in cooperation with his descendants. In Germany they are sold through Martin Nerbel, who has been friends with the Mouille family since he met them in the 1970s as part of a school exchange program.

literature

  • Pierre Émile Pralus: A French Classic. Serge Mouille , Les Éditions du Mont Thou, 2006, ISBN 2-9526325-0-2
  • Charlotte and Peter Fiell: 1000 Lights. 1879 to 1859 , Taschen Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-8228-1606-X

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography , sergemouille.de
  2. ↑ Information on Serge Mouille at Markanto.de
  3. ↑ Pierre Émile Pralus: A French Classic. Serge Mouille , Les Éditions du Mont Thou, 2006, ISBN 2-9526325-0-2
  4. ↑ Information on Serge Mouille at Markanto.de
  5. ↑ Pierre Émile Pralus: A French Classic. Serge Mouille , Les Éditions du Mont Thou, 2006, ISBN 2-9526325-0-2
  6. ↑ Information on Serge Mouille at Markanto.de
personal data
SURNAME Mouille, Serge
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French product designer
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1988 or December 25, 1988
Place of death Monthiers