Alexandre Noll's handcrafted, sculptural pieces find a passionate following
This article was originally published by artinfo.com, an online news and information source for the world of art and culture. artinfo.com is published by Louise Blouin Media.
Many bidders at Phillips de Pury & Company’s London auction of important design this past September were doubtless surprised that the top-selling lot was a circa 1950 mahogany dining table by the French sculptor Alexandre Noll (est. £115-125,000; $213-232,000). After all, the sale was chock-full of sleek pieces by some of today’s hippest and most celebrated designers — Ron Arad, Tord Boontje, Zaha Hadid and Hella Jongerius among them — and Noll’s lovingly carved and joined creations in wood, at once sensual and almost primordial, are the antithesis of flash. Yet the Noll table fetched £169,250 ($314,000), $40,000 more than a lacquered fibreglass-reinforced polyester chandelier by Hadid and Patrik Schumacher (which was pictured on the auction catalogue cover) and outselling the third-place lot, a limited-edition Arad patinated-bronze lounge chair, by $100,000. |
In his native France, Noll (1890-1970) has long been a revered, if quixotic, figure. His work debuted outside France in the mid-1980s, and most collectors did not know what to make of it. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the market for mid century design began to take off. Connoisseurs split into two camps. One camp promoted the stylish "Martini Modern" work of American industrial designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Edward Wormley. The second turned to Europe, and to France in particular.
Noll ‘s reputation got a boost in 1997, when the French dealers Catherine and Stéphane de Beyrie mounted the first solo exhibition of his sculptures and functional objects at their couture-design showroom in New York’s SoHo district. Viewers’ reactions were mixed. "Some people said the furniture looked like something from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," recall the de Beyries, who have since returned to Paris. "But most collectors came to share our passion for Noll. They understood his unique way of sculpting, the strength of his pieces, his love of wood and the sensuality of his work."
Noll caught the attention of the design world at large in 2003, when Joop consigned a number of his by-then-huge trove of the artist’s pieces to a Sotheby’s sale. A mahogany Noll chair, primordial yet pillow like, from an edition of five, was bought for $680,000, setting a briefly held auction record for post war design. "Until then, Noll’s market had been growing at a healthy rate," recalls James Zemaitis, the head of the 20th-century decorative arts department at Sotheby’s. "But this was a beautiful sale: the collection of a minor celebrity, full of pieces by a rising star. It came at the perfect moment."
The Sotheby’s sale made Noll a "name" designer, although he is still not a household name. "Noll remains an acquired taste," says Richard Wright, head of the Chicago auction house that bears his name and specialises in post war design and art. "He has such a unique aesthetic. His work is so idiosyncratic and feels so primal." |
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