UAM: Modern Artists Put to the Test

The creation of the Union of Modern Artists (UAM), in 1929, by René Herbst, Francis Jourdain, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, Hélène Henry and Raymond Templier, is often presented as a split of the "moderns" against the "elders”, united within the Society of Decorative Artists (SAD).

These modern artists, joined by Pierre Chareau, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier, the Martel brothers, Jean Prouvé and many others, campaigned for a functionalist art, without ornament, intended for mass consumption. They turned their backs on decorators and luxury craftsmanship, embodied by the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925, to create a movement in tune with the needs of their time.

This work retraces the decisive moments of this split and the birth of the UAM, relying in particular on the archives of the two groups, from which it reproduces extracts, as well as numerous period documents.

The context, as well as the difficulties encountered by the moderns and the decorators – aesthetics, manufacturing, distribution, reception – along with the lasting friendships between the creators of these two groups, and the dissensions existing within the UAM, allow us to shed light on this key moment in the history of decorative arts, industrial design and architecture, and to anchor it in the upheavals of the time, between the economic crisis of 1929 and uncertainties about the future. 

• Size: 15 x 21 cm

• Number of pages: 176

• Illustrations: 10

• Softcover

• Text in French only

Exhibition, “UAM, l'aventure des modernes” at the musée national d'art moderne, centre Georges Pompidou, from May 26 to August 27, 2018.