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T his month, Sotheby’s Paris presents DESIGN XX-XXI, a panoramic overview of design, from the 20th century to the present day. It’s a smorgasbord of delights with 215 covetable objects from major designers as well as a special sequence of items from the feted Memphis Group. With works from Jean Dunand, Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Jean Royère, Jean Prouvé, Guy de Rougemont, Charlotte Perriand, Maria Pergay, Line Vautrin, Joris Laarman, Hubert le Gall and François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne the auction’s span serves no less than a comprehensive overview of the century’s leading design innovators and thinkers who shaped their present with an eye to the forms of the future.
Curating the sale with Sotheby’s is French-born designer Benoît Astier de Villatte, co-founder of the eponymous ceramics house. With his business partner Ivan Pericoli, he founded Astier de Villatte in 1996 to honour the legacy of 18th century Parisian ceramic studios. Today, as well as producing a range of beautiful and artisan-crafted ceramics, the firm produces a line of scented hand care products, incense and candles.
Created in 1996, Astier de Villatte has many facets: it’s an artisanal ceramics workshop in Paris - the only one of its kind - which revives the tradition of Parisian manufacturing processes from the 18th century and brings the art of stamping up to date. It is also a printing press in the suburbs of Paris.
On the occasion of the DESIGN XX-XXI auction, we decided to indulge in a spot of psychological profiling, using the questionnaire devised by 19th century author Marcel Proust that has become a revealing roadmap into the minds of cultural figures over the years. This is what Benoît shared with us, when we posed the famous questions to him.
My favorite virtue
Friendship, wisdom
The quality I prefer in a man
Sensitivity
The quality I prefer in a woman
Strength
What I most value in my friends
Their joyful depth
"Our aim is to create beautiful pieces. Beauty must prevail over function. Yes, we must support craftsmanship, and handcrafting is wonderful, but what is the use if the outcome isn’t captivating?"
My main fault
Laziness and impatience
My favorite occupation
Painting
My dream of happiness
Painting
What would be my greatest misfortune
Stagnation
What I would like to be
Happy
The country I would like to live
Nirvana, Italy
My favorite color
Sapphire blue
My favorite flower
The Mona Lisa anemone
My favorite bird
Dove
My favorite poet
Rilke, Victor Hugo
My favorite composers
Monteverdi, Ravel, Debussy, Brahms
My favorite painters
Balthus, Setsuko, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney
My fictitious herous
Goupil, Tintin
My fictitious heroines
Miss Marple, Titian’s Venus, the Queen of Saba
My real-life heroes
David, Balthus
"In my opinion, what defines Astier de Villatte's products is that they are designed without compromise or marketing. We are serving a character, akin to a novel hero, and from this intention, we craft his universe with the products that accompany it."
My heroines of history
Colette, La Callas
What I hate most of all
Meanness
The gift of nature I would like to have
Healing, consolation
How I would like to die
Peacefully.
Actual state of mind
Speed
"At Astier de Villatte, we take our time, we don't have a development schedule. When a product seems successful to us, we launch it. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it takes a long time"
Faults that I find most forgivable
Spelling mistakes.
My motto
If there’s a solution, there’s no point in worrying, but if there is no solution,
worrying won’t change anything (Buddha).
My favorite designers
Alberto Giacometti, Harumi Klossowska, Maarten Baas, Jean-Michel Frank, Claude Lalanne and Ettore Sottsass.
For more information, head to Astier De Villatte
Banner image: ©Stephen Kent Johnson
