Rare 'Ombre' Chair, designed circa 1954, executed circa 1975

From 1940 to 1946, Charlotte Perriand lived in Japan by invitation of the Japanese government. During her time there, Perriand was part of a group responsible for the advancement of cultural exchange between the East and the West. With this deep history and affinity for Japanese art and craftsmanship, Perriand returned in 1953 with her husband Jacques Martin, an executive for Air France. This return to Japan opened up new opportunity for an exchange of ideas and experimentation with new materials. The Ombre (shadow) chair design is a rare example of Perriand’s work during this second visit to Japan. Perriand enlisted the help of members of the Japanese avant-garde, including Sori Yanagi and Junzo Sakasura whom she had collaborated with in her previous exhibition Selection, Tradition, Creation in 1941. Her vision was to create a new exhibition that expressed the collaboration of artists and industry, synthesizing the different materials and approaches to the creative environment of the post-war era. Perriand received the immediate support of her fellow countrymen Fernand Leger and Le Corbusier for the project, leading to the seminal exhibition Proposal for a Synthesis of the Arts, Paris 1955. Le Corbusier, Fernand Leger, Charlotte Perriand at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo. Perriand developed several designs for the exhibition, including chairs in bent plywood manufactured by Tendo. A small number of prototype dining chairs were made with this experimental technology, with the seats raised on legs lightly touching the floor in a gentle curve as not to snag or damage the traditional tatami mats. The folded, single plane of bent plywood can be seen as an extension of Japanese origami, and the model exhibited in Proposal for a Synthesis of the Arts references the dark clothing of bunraku puppeteers that disappear against a black background. The anthropomorphic design has a split backrest that moves independently of each other for comfort. Exceptionally rare as a form, and rarer in colors, only a limited number of these prototype Ombre chairs were created.