CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/26/2018

"Prouvé's attitude was to prove that through simplicity the problem could be solved."

Design lovers, take note. It's not often that we get a book that is this big and this beautiful. New from Galerie Patrick Seguin, this 764-page, two-volume slipcased edition expands the gallery's previous Prouvé overview (long out-of-print) by more than 100 pages, and features well over 1,500 gorgeous, archival and contemporary color and black-and-white images. Pictured here is Prouvé's elegant yet totally unpretentious 1950 demountable wooden chair no. 301 with steel brace. Designed in 1947, this "do it yourself chair" addressed a shortage of metal, as well as the rapid expansion of the private home market, in post-war France. It's an excellent example of what noted architect, designer and essayist Jean Nouvel calls Prouvé's "attitude" towards proving "that through simplicity the problem could be fully resolved."