X Chair with Arms by Maria Pergay

Maria Pergay is represented in NYC by Demisch Danant. She is well known by her Stainless Steel work…among it Stainless Steel chairs like this X Chair.

About Maria Pergay

When Maria Pergay began her career in 1956, post-war modernism in France was energetically accelerating. Young architects were developing an approach to interiors and furniture meant to accommodate the pressing requirements of urbanization. Their ideas, focused largely on function, dominated the field with a utopian spirit that was permeating society as a whole. In the midst of this moment, when classical decoration was being relegated to the past, Pergay’s early designs came to life. Born with a sensitivity to luxury, her furniture and objects fulfilled curiosities far from the norms of the time.

Maria Pergay’s career began while creating ornate metal elements for window displays in Paris’s fashionable boutiques. With her creativity piqued, she began experimenting with silver, soon producing a complete collection of distinct, contemporary pieces in the late 1950s. The vast uniqueness of the silver objects set the tone for a lifelong tendency to challenge current trends and work outside the boundaries of her contemporaries. In addition, Pergay’s silver work functioned as a catalyst for her innovative works made of stainless steel. Pergay’s usage of this material not only became her trademark but also changed the face of French decoration in the 1970s. All the while, furniture design remained a harshly male-dominated field which relegated design work by women to trite ‘decoration.’

As a mother of four without formal training particular to furniture, nor outside support, Pergay pursued her creative instincts working relatively alone. Drawing from a multitude of sources, she was provoked by antiquity, Japanese art and the innate nature of her materials — conjuring a voice so individual that many of her pieces would not receive recognition until years after they were created. Much like Eileen Gray, whose genius was also widely neglected because of her gender, Pergay created for her own pleasure — exhibiting and selling to clients, while quietly receiving important private commissions. In this way, she maintained a diverse and lengthy career, working enthusiastically even today.

Much in the way that Pergay’s innovative work landed her outside of the French modernist movement of the 1950s and 1960s, neither does she conform to the mainstream of today’s contemporary design. When questioned, she refuses to be designated solely as an artist, designer or decorator, but describes herself as a servant to her own creative impulses, particularly as a “captor of ideas.” Moreover, she defies the demand to produce using one theme over a singular period of time, rather creating as her ideas come, without schedule or structure.

(Source: Bio by Demisch Danant)

Maria Pergay Lounge Chair

Maria Pergay Lounge Chair

Maria Pergay Lounge Chair

For sale: Lot 13 in a December 13, 2016 sale at Phillips NYC:
Maria Pergay Lounge chair (circa 1970)
Estimate: $15,000 – 20,000
Update: Sold for $30,000

About Maria Pergay

Born in Moldavia, Maria Pergay (b. 1930) opened her first shop in the Place des Vosges in 1960 and designed small objects in silver and special pieces on commission for fashion houses including Christian Dior and Jacques Heim. In 1968, Maria Pergay presented her first collection of stainless steel furniture at Galerie Maison et Jardin, including the now-iconic Flying Carpet Daybed (1968) and Tambour Table (1968). This seminal exhibition established Pergay as one of the most innovative French furniture designers of her time, a visionary who almost single-handedly transformed stainless steel from a commercial industrial material into a principal component of modern furniture.

Pergay has exhibited and has embarked upon significant commissions for Pierre Cardin, the World Trade Center in Brussels, the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, and other esteemed clients. Pergay’s work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In her 86th year, after a half-century of creation, Pergay continues to surprise both herself and her collectors.

Source: Demisch Danant, a NYC and Paris based gallery representing Maria Pergay.

Ring Chair by Maria Pergay

Ring Chair by Maria Pergay

Ring Chair by Maria Pergay

The Ring Chair will be on auction at Phillips in London on April 29, 2014. Their estimate is £18,000 – 24,000.

Update: sold for $30,000

December 12, 2012 a similar chair was sold for $43,750 at Phillips.

Banquette by Maria Pergay


Banquette by Maria Pergay

Lot 71

Banquette, c. 1968

Brushed steel, suede. 38 x 300 x 100 cm (15 x 118 x 39 3/8 in) Produced by Design Steel, France.

ESTIMATE £60,000-80,000

via Phillips de Pury & Company.

Side Chairs by Maria Pergay

Side Chairs by Maria Pergay 180

Side Chairs by Maria Pergay 181_001

Two Side Chairs by Maria Pergay were offered at Phillips de Pury & Co, lot number 180 and lot number 181

Each estimated at $12,000-16,000

Moved here from ChairBlog | Tumblr on October 20, 2009