Ninja Chair

As I was working through my first lecture today I inserted the work of Charlotte Perriand. A designer in Le Corbusier's atelier before the second world war, she is responsible for (what I think) is the most interesting furniture to come out of Corb's studio. During the war she actually had to stay in Japan for the length of the conflict and worked through some of her most thoughtful work. Captivated by the Japanese culture she came up with this very beautiful Ombre chair which is stackable. For me this piece hits a lot of notes, elegantly mass producable, modern yet personable and some how the form of the piece really conjures a narrative of the Asian spirit..a would call it a Ninja chair. One of the best reads about Corbusier and chic modernist french life in the twenties and thirties is Perriand's autobiography, Charlotte Perriand, A Life of Creation . Somehow she explains Corb's work very clearly, she had a great life complete with many a chapters ending in "at the top of the mountain I took off my shirt!" And if you look carefully you see she had NO editor...Pretty great lady.