Invisible Collection and Féau Boiseries present Period Rooms of the Future, an exhibition where never-before-seen decors created at the height of Art Deco will serve as fantastic backdrops for a curation of ultra-contemporary designs. Rare paneling, shelving, and boiseries, originally created for the tastemakers of their time, are displayed in their original splendor — a fascinating reminder of the cultural continuity between the 1920s and today’s collectible design, something Invisible Collection has championed since its inception. Period Rooms of the Future has long been in the making, timed to coincide with the celebrations of the centenary of Art Deco, including the expansive exhibition at MAD, where visitors will be able to detect the subtle connections between the archives on show at the museum and the rare decors staged at Féau Boiseries. But this is not a nostalgic journey into the past; rather, it is a fresh look at the foundations of what still shapes our contemporary sensibility, and the ideal of beau: the exquisite and the beautiful. As modernity and rationalism called for new, machine-made methods of creation in the 1920s, the masters of the time remained faithful to the ideals of superior craftsmanship and to a vision of beauty born from the intimate union of savoir-faire and design — which is precisely the point of Period Rooms of the Future.
Carefully handpicked from Féau’s archives and private collection, each décor is a true gem – rarely, if ever, shown – specially commissioned by notable tastemakers and aesthetes during the short yet intense Art Deco period. Like a walk through history, visitors wander amidst displays like vignettes of Parisian lifestyle: the stunning fumoir designed by Maurice Dufrêne for the home of David David-Weill — a feat of ebony, mother-of-pearl, and gilded bronze; the entire boiserie of the office of oil baron Elie Nahmias created by Emilio Terry; the delicately hand-chiseled wood panels for Jeanne Lanvin’s dining room; the majestic cabinets and bookcases in rosewood and gilded bronze designed by Ruhlmann for the home of L’Oréal’s founder Eugène Schueller — they all tell a story of life in Paris, offering a more intimate view into these remarkable homes. Period Rooms of the Future does not look back, though; the settings are reimagined with ultra-contemporary designs and objects conjuring a new idea of modern living and the unmistakable aesthetic championed by Invisible Collection.
