Jacques Biny was one of the most important French lighting designers from 1950 to 1970. Unlike most designers, he also manufactured designs and worked in partnership with some of the best designers of the time, including Michel Buffet, Jean Boris Lacroix and Gustave Gauthier. Together, they set out to forge a new future for this field.

A graduate of the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Jacques Biny settled in his home town of Valence in order to practise his profession of interior designer. Confronted by a lack of light fittings on the sites he was working on, he decided to design his own, which he then offered to his clients. Following this experience, Jacques Biny returned to Paris in 1950, founding his own contemporary light fittings production workshop, Luminalite, three years later.

For this year’s Design Miami/Basel, Pascal Cuisinier has decided to stage, in the most literal sense of the word, a show comprising of Jacques Biny’s finest creations.

The stand has been designed in the same manner as a theatre, with black curtains in the wings and lighting inspired by director Robert Wilson’s work. A luminescent white backdrop à la James Turrell completes the display.

This mise en scène also features one of the finest examples of a Président range desk by Pierre Guariche.

This exhibition, organized by Galerie Pascal Cuisinier, will run from 16 to 21 June 2015 in Basel, before moving to Galerie Pascal Cuisinier’s exhibition space in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, where it will be on display from 27 June to 12 September 2015.

Galerie Pascal Cuisinier
Championing the first modern French designers

Galerie Pascal Cuisinier has strongly promoted the first generation of modern French designers born between 1925 and 1930. Since 2006, it defends their furniture, produced between 1951 and 1961 as well as the work of key light fitting designers J. Biny, P. Disderot and R. Mathieu.

Born for the most part between 1925 and 1930, this first generation of modern designers followed largely similar paths, usually beginning at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs or Arts appliqués à l’industrie (the schools for Decorative Arts or Applied Arts and Industrial Design). They shared a common vision with regard to the form and function of production furniture. Their designs were characterized by their practicality, technical innovations and elegance.

Located on the Rue de Seine, Galerie Pascal Cuisinier has helped shed light on the avant-garde spirit behind these young designers.

Its founder, Pascal Cuisinier, takes care to select only the best works from this period and presents them on show in the gallery and at the biggest art fairs around the world such as PAD London and Paris, Design Miami, Design Miami/Basel.