Early Pierre Chapo 'S38A’ Benches in Solid Elm
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This wonderful ‘S38A’ set of benches is designed by Pierre Chapo in the 1960s. A soft, warm all-over patina is visible on the wood of this bench. This emphasizes the natural expression of the item. This design is another great example of the quality and craftsmanship of Pierre Chapo. The shape of the base creates a very open look and makes this an object to make a space more interesting. The perfectly made solid wood joints, also shown on the side of the top with double connection made of solid elmwood, are true Chapo trademarks.
Pierre Chapo (1927-1987) was born in a family of craftsmen and trained as an architect in Paris. After spending many years traveling through south and north America he and his partner Nicole set up Société Chapo, an architectural research consultancy and interior design firm. In 1958 they opened their famous gallery at 14 Boulevard de l'Hopital. Chapo's work originated by means of special commissions that could later be adapted to universal needs. Chapo was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's balanced lines, Corbusier's research on proportions and the minimalist tendencies of Bauhaus. Societe Chapo was a design workshop and gallery in one where Nicole presented ceramics, textiles and other design by the great designers of the day. The three principles that motivated Pierre Chapo were 'material, form, and function.' He measured his furniture by means of golden ratio and used elm wood as his preferred material.
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From Clamart to the Luberon
Chapo's path into furniture ran through architecture, not craft school. At the Beaux-Arts he met his future wife and collaborator Nicole Lormier, and their travels together — through Scandinavian workshops, an Arizona cabinetmaker's shop, Central America and Germany during his military service — sharpened an eye for structure that owed as much to the Bauhaus as to the American masters he encountered on the road.
In 1957 the couple opened a gallery in Paris's 5th arrondissement and a manufacturing workshop in the suburb of Clamart, showing Chapo's furniture alongside sculptors such as Isamu Noguchi. Samuel Beckett commissioned the so-called Godot bed in 1959. In 1966 Chapo moved the workshop to Gordes in Provence, where he kept refining his technique until his death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in January 1987 — by then he had patented the Chlacc laminated-wood system (1979) and was developing 'Go', a construction built from flat panels of solid wood.
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