Quite a few events scheduled all over the world for LGBTQ Pride Month 2020 were cancelled due to Coronavirus. Yet there are still digital events to check out, while different companies have been releasing celebratory products (Funko Pop! for example has its line of special Pride figurines – Batman, Hello Kitty and SpongeBob - and the company also made a donation to the It Gets Better Project View this photo). But is it possible to celebrate Pride Month with interior design? Of course it is and, to get inspired, check out this rainbow dream-like chair designed in 1938 by Don Emilio Rene Terry y Sánchez (1890–1969), known as Emilio Terry.
The French architect, artist, interior decorator and landscape designer designed sets for plays by Henry Bernstein, ballets by Edward James, photographs by Horst for Vogue magazine, and boasted among his friends Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, Gabrielle Chanel, Misia Sert, Salvador Dalí, Christian Bérard, Jean Cocteau, René Crevel, Jean Hugo and Balanchine.
Terry created furniture, tapestries and objets d'art and in his designs he was influenced by the château de Chenonceau, acquired by his family. He came up with an imaginary architectural style that was at once classical and baroque. Freely inspired by Palladio and Claude Nicolas Ledoux, it was defined by Terry as the "Louis XVII style".
In 1933, Terry made a model of a double-spiral house, called "en colimaçon" ("snail-style"), which illustrated one of his theories – the art of architecture expressed a "dream to be realised" ("rêve à réaliser"). In a way this concept goes well with what we are all fighting for – a society that treats each and everyone as equal, a dream to be realised (but certainly not an impossible dream).
The drawing is currently part of an exhibition at Paris' Musée des Arts Décoratifs celebrating the richness of its Cabinet of Drawings. Characterised by a cross-disciplinary approach, the event (from 23rd June 2020 to 31st January 2021) features more than 200,000 works ranging from the 16th century to present day, and from Europe and all the way to Japan. Among the drawings on display, there will be artworks by Le Brun, Watteau, Fragonard, Degas and Rodin, designs by ornamentalists and decorators, projects for gardens, sculptures, paintings, objects, silverware and wallpaper, plus jewellery and haute couture designs. So, there will be the proverbial something for everybody.