André Arbus, a modern style inspired by tradition

Born in a French craftsman family and raised by a cabinetmaker father, André Arbus learnt from a young age the secrets and skills required for these traditional professions based on a precise expertise and sense of detail. He studied at the Fine Arts school of Toulouse where he met various sculptors and painters, some of whom became eventually close friends collaborating on several of his projects.

André Arbus
*© ullstein bild - Roger-Viollet / Pierre Jahan*

André Arbus started his career in 1925 at the age of 22 year old during the International Decorative Arts Exhibition where he displayed a dressing table designed and executed in collaboration with his friend and painter Marc Saint-Saëns. Among the numerous design movements presented during this design event the French decorator identified himself with the values of the members of La Compagnie des Arts Français, a group which is pushing for a comeback towards the French tradition with purified design lines.

André Arbus
Design for a Bedroom in Blue with Twin Beds
1935
© MET Museum

The French designer draws his inspiration from the French classic styles and especially the Louis XVI style which he particularly admired and reworked with simplified and extended shapes. This process results in furniture pieces mixing the 20th century modern lines with the silhouette and symbolic details inspired from the classical French styles.

A.Arbus creations are characterized by the use of wood embellished with bronze or ivory elements highlighting the strongest lines. He also resorted to more precious materials such as lacquer, gold foil, parchment and collaborated often his sculptor and painter friends for the ornamentation of his pieces. Vadim Androusov is involved in many of his creations and his gilt bronze mask has become one of the most symbolic ornament of the André Arbus furniture pieces.

André Arbus & Vadim Androusov
A sideboard,, turquoise relacquered wood, bronze feet and apron, golden bronze decoration, mahogany interior.
1942
© Tajan

In 1937 André Arbus presented two projects on the occasion of the International Exhibition on Arts and techniques in modern life : On one side a house interior intended for a middle income family and on the other side a luxurious dwelling in Parisian suburbs decorated with high-end materials and a surrealist touch which is reminiscent of Giacometti’s brothers artworks created in collaboration with Jean Michel Frank in the same period.

Using refined shapes mixed with rich ornamentation to create his various pieces, wether it is a rug, table plate or a sideboard, André Arbus creates a union between each volume. The post-war period marks André Arbus’ success thanks notably to his project for the Mobilier National which orders from him the interior redesign of the castle of Rambouillet and several pieces for the Elysée Palace.

André ARBUS and Gilbert POILLERAT
Pedestal side table, Circa 1940
Forged iron, Metal, Granite, Stone
© Isabelle Bideau, Mobilier National, January 2019

The designer would later be engaged by several marine companies to decorate their ocean liners such as the Bretagne, Viêtnam or the France in the 1960s. At the end of his artistic career André Barbus would eventually turn towards sculpture which was for him a way to express fully his feelings, thoughts and instinct. His last partner and one his strongest inspiration in this artistic field was definitely the sculptor Sylva Bernt who produced some metal furniture pieces with A.Arbus in the 1950s and whose lines and inspirations recall Diego Giacometti’s audacious artworks.