Maison de la Radio, Paris

(...)

Ader, Paris, 12 February 2021, lot 104

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Private collection, France

Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Max Ingrand : Du verre à la lumière, Paris, 2009, p. 215

Franco Deboni, Fontana Arte : Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, Max Ingrand, 🌼Turin, 2012, the model referenced un🅷der n° 344 and 344a, n.p.

In 1952, a competition was launched for t🌳he construction of the future RTF (Radiodiffusion-Télévision française) building. The architect Henry Bernard won the project and construction began in 1958 at 116 avenue du Président Kennedy, on the banks of the Seine in the Paris 16th arrondissement. The Maison de la Radio was inaugurated by General de Gaulle, President of the French Republic, on 14 December 1963. It was the expression of the modernity of the time.

In additio⛄n to its architectural and technical qualities, the "round house", as it is known, is a total work of art, housing works by majo🐎r artists and designers of the time such as Jean Bazaine, Georges Mathieu, Pierre Paulin, Gilbert Poillerat, Pierre Soulages and François Stahly.

It was in the Salle des Variétés, designed by Jean Niermans between 1961 and 1963, that Max Ingrand, a glassmaker whose talent had been recognised sinc♋e the 1930s, was commissioned to create a series of wall lights. The thick slabs of glass with their dynamic broken lines resemble abstract lightဣ sculptures in keeping with the interior décor.