Joseph-André Motte

Joseph-André Motte is the most influential and innovative designer of post-war French design. Reflecting a commitment to the idea that modern design could resolutely improve society, Motte remains a feature of everyday French life through his large-scale designs of public spaces throughout the country. His works cascade through venues as regal as the Louvre and as quotidian as the Parisian metro, testing material and articulating the significance of affordable design in a changing world.

Born in Saint-Bonnet, a village in the Hautes-Alpes of France, Joseph-André Motte studied applied arts in Paris as a student of René Gabriel, Louis Sognot, and Albert Guénot. By 1954, Motte had founded his own design agency and created the Atelier de Recherche Plastique (ARP) with prominent designers Pierre Guariche and Michel Mortier—both of whom he met while studying in Marcel Gascoin’s workshop.

A figurehead of the French modern movement, Motte was frequently commissioned by the French administration to participate in grand public projects, including the interiors of hundreds of metro stations in Paris. Throughout the subway stations, his chairs remain functional cornerstones of Parisian life. Additionally, Motte conceived of the designs for the Orly (1961), Roissy (1970) and Lyon Satolas (1975) airports. In particular, his work with architect Henri Vicariot for the Orly Airport represented the marriage of structural and interior elements in living spaces. This era of collaborative work with architects rejuvenated the role of interior designers like Motte.

Motte experimented widely with wood, stainless steel, Formica, and plastics, the variety of which reflected a desire to humanize the spaces he worked in—especially as the use of concrete and other typically austere elements became fashionable in architecture. He once explained, “material is in charge, then imagination.” Moreover, Motte’s choice of otherwise overlooked materials contributed to cost-effective production. His desire to be economical existed in tandem with his belief that the large-scale manufacture of works offered consumers a means to personalize their living environments.

Motte’s work represents the intersection of beauty and functionality in the face of an industrial society. His designs are in the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Pompidou Centre in Paris, and a number of public forums including the Hôtel de Ville (1968) in Grenoble and the Council of Europe’s building (1973) in Strasbourg, France. Motte earned the René Gabriel Prize in 1957, the Grand Prize of the 1958 International Exposition, in Brussels, and he was honored as a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest distinction awarded by the French Ministry of Culture.