Marc Held is both an architect and a designer. His creations have included Limoges dinnerware, ski gear, automobiles, and homes, in addition to industrial buildings, automobiles, and teaspoons. Despite having long had a Paris studio, his designs were seen and purchased worldwide. Many of his pieces are on display in contemporary art museums, and some rare and difficult-to-find ones are included in significant public auctions.
Marc Held focuses primarily on the interaction between traditional and modern architecture today. He carefully chooses commissions that allow him to combine theory and practise while designing and building homes complete with their landscaping and furnishings in the tradition of the greatest architects of the 20th century, including Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Alvar Alto, and Arne Jacobsen. Greece, Marc Held’s second home for more than ten years, is where he now primarily resides. (:: MARC HELD :: Architect & Designer, n.d.)
Education
He studied kinesiology and dramatic arts.
Biography
Held was a professor of physical education. In 1960, he founded and became the director of Archiform, a centre for research in industrial, interior, and architectural design where designers, architects, and former pupils of the Ecole Boulle, Paris, pursued their work. In 1965, he founded the publication Echoppe. Hôtel Les Dromonts, Avoriaz, was one of the jobs he worked on between 1966 and 1968. He also designed three chairs for Knoll, including the well-known Culbuto chair from 1967, produced in 1970. He created many private apartment interiors up until 1966; in 1969, he created plastic-moulded furniture for the homes of architect Georges Candilis; and in 1973, he created a dinner service made of Limoges porcelain by Coquet. In 1971, Held started working as an independent architect for clients like IBS and designed the interior of the 1987 ocean liner Wind Star. These pieces of plastic furniture were sold in Held’s own store, L’Echoppe, and were made by Créateurs et Industrielles (distributed by Prisunic). For François Mitterrand, Archiform created the interior of the Lintas advertising agency, the Oceanliner Mermoz, and the Grand Drawing Room of the Elysée Palace.
Exhibitions
Participated in the 1968 (XIV) Triennale di Milano. Work (moulded-plastic furniture) shown in the architecture section: French Pavilion, 1970 (III) Eurodomus, Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan; 1990 Design français: 1960–1990: Trois décennies exhibition, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Designed for the 1969 Construction et Humanisme exhibition in Cannes.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
MARC HELD Architect & Designer. (n.d.). MARC HELD architect & designer. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from http://marcheldarchitect.com/en/index.htm#:~:text=Marc%20Held%20is%20both%20a,ski%20outfits%2C%20automobiles%20and%20houses.
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Pierre Paulin (1927 – 2009) French furniture designer
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SS. Normandie Art Deco Palace
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Jan and Joel Martel (1896 – 1966) twin brothers and French sculptors
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Jean Patou (1880 – 1936) 🎩 Fashion Designer
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Groupe des Cinq French fraternity of designers
Its members included Pierre Chareau, Raymond Templier, Dominique (André Domin and Marcel Genevriere), and Pierre Legrain. In 1926 and 1927, they showed their work as the Groupe des Cinq at Galerie Barbazanges, Paris. The gallery, at 109 rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, was designed by André Lurcat. The association is not to be confused with…
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Pierre-Émile Legrain (1889 -1929) French Furniture Designer
He submitted cartoons in 1908 for Paul Iribe’s satirical reviews Le Témoin, L’Assiette au beurre, Le Mot, and La Baionnette. Iribe invited Legrain to collaborate with him on projects including furniture and interior design, jewelry for Robert Linzeler, and dress designs for Paquin.Read More →
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Jacques Hitier (1917 – 1999) French furniture designer
He specialised in developing industrial furniture for public contexts like schools and government buildings after WWII. He exhibited his whole body of work at both the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs and the Salon des Arts Ménagers. Hitier also created luxury and high-end home furnishings.Read More →
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Salon d’Automne exhibitions Paris, France
The founders of the Salon d’Automne were a collective of artists and writers, including Eugène Carrière, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Rouault, Édouard Vuillard, Joris-Karl Huysmans and Émile Verhaeren…Read More →
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Francis Jourdain (1876 – 1958) – painter, interior designer, ceramicist
Francis Jourdain (1876 – 1958), the son of architect Frantz Jourdain, was born on November 2, 1876. His father created the Salon d’Automne collection. He benefited from his parents’ friendships with prominent intellectuals (Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet) and artists of the time (the circle of Alexandre Charpentier). Read More →
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René Lalique (1860 – 1945) French goldsmith and glassmaker
Artisan in glass and creator of family firm Cristal Lalique René Lalique was a French glass designer, jeweller, furniture designer,Read More →
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Eileen Gray (1879 – 1976) Irish/French Furniture Designer
Eileen Gray was an French furniture designer and architect. Her work reflected a stylistic pastiche of far eastern and french influences.Read More →
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Joseph and Pierre Moughin – French ceramicists
Joseph Mougin decided to become a ceramicist after seeing an exhibition of Jean Carriès’s pottery in 1894. He set up a studio and a kiln in Montrouge with the help of sculptor friend Lemarquier and his brother Pierre Mougin.Read More →
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Jean Adnet (1900 – 1995) French designer
In 1928, Jean Adnet became director of the window-display department at Galeries Lafayette, where, in 1922, brother Jacques Adnet became director of its La Maitrise decorating studio; they collaborated under the name ‘JJ Adnet.Read More →
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Boucheron French Jewellery House
Boucheron was a French court jeweller with branches in Paris, London, Biarritz, and New York. Founded by Frederic Boucheron (1858). Famous for elaborate diamond jewellery during the late 19th century. Expensive novelties shown at international exhibitions in Paris (1867 and 1900) and Philadelphia (1876) attracted wealthy customers (mainly American).Read More →
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Formes Utiles – French Organisation and Exhibitions
In 1949, Formes Utiles became an independent association of UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes) through the influence of René Herbst and Charlotte Perriand and its first exhibition held at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Its theoretician was architect André Hermant.Read More →
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Henri Vever (1854 – 1942) collector of Ukiyo-e
Vever had acquired a collection of thousands of fine ukiyo-e prints by the early twentieth century. Vever’s collection was so well-regarded that the authors of some of the first European scholarly publications on ukiyo-e relied heavily on it for most of their actual print researchRead More →