Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Garouste et Bonetti


Chair, 1992 Garouste et Bonetti


Desk and chair, Blome residence 1992


Grand bureau, 1987 Garouste et Bonetti


Belgravia cabinet 1989, Elisabeth Garouste


Kawakubo chest, 1994 Elisabeth Garouste


Table 'Abyss' , 2004 Mattia Bonetti

I first encountered the design team* of Garouste et Bonetti on my first decorating project. It was love at first sight. I adore the artisanal. I found their neo-barbaric pieces captivating and timeless, not unlike Bronze Age artefacts. Alas, nothing lasts forever, Garouste et Bonetti have gone their separate ways. Mattia Bonetti and Elisabeth Garouste now work separately; their individual perspectives are now more evident.

Unfortunately those who love this type of work, seem to do so exclusively. I prefer to see these works as part of a greater whole (i.e. the David Whitney Collection), rather than as merely a display of artisanal furniture.

*This is a correction of the previous information that Garouste et Bonetti were a husband and wife team. Which was a surprise to me as I thought until a few years ago they were both women.
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7 comments:

Pigtown*Design said...

Love the Belgravia chest... what fun!

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Garouste and Bonetti were never married. He is the longtime husband of French shelter-magazine editor Isabelle Forestier. And according to the 2002 International Who's Who, Garouste is the wife of the French painter GĂ©rard Garouste; they married in 1970 and have two sons.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Do you remember the CRAZY apartment G&B did in Hong Kong? It was published in Nest. God that was nuts and wonderful too, though I couldn't sit still in it for a moment. It would make me require tranquilizers.

HOBAC said...

AL - thanks for the correction. I thought it might be wrong.
https://www.nationaltrust.org/news/2006/090806_Whitney.pdf

HOBAC said...

AL - that is the very place I was thinking of when I wrote the statement re an artisanal display! Gorgeous, but too gallery like.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Yes, the Sotheby's info is wrong; I know Bonetti's wife, spent a lovely weekend with her in Tunisia, and they've been married for 20 years or more too ...

Unknown said...

thanks for this- their work is what inspired me to return to design school, way back when.

i couldn't agree more about the setting in which the works are displayed- too much one of kind makes for an eye-searing experience where nothing appears special; yet integrated into a more familiar environment, the pieces stand out like jewels.

last, if i had a biological child, i might sell him/her for a belgravia cabinet... ;-)