The Exhibitions of 1964 and 1982

The catalogue of the first exhibition devoted to Jean Prouvé, Jean Prouvé Industriel du bâtiment (Jean Prouvé Industrialist of the Building), organized by the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in 1964 started with a text by Le Corbusier, dated 7 January 1964 in which he states “…he expresses the present time.. he builds and he conceives…” The invited preface writers of the catalogue praised the man, the builder, the constructor and his position among the top ranking precursors for having revealed the qualities of aluminium and developed tough and revolutionary architectural programmes, while the exhibition presented soberly and simply the models and studies of this new architectural vocabulary: the Maison du Peuple (House of the People) and the Clichy Market in 1938, the metallic houses in 1946 and 1949, the house for the Abbé Pierre in 1956, the tropical house in 1948, the Palais de la Foire (Fair Palace) of Lille in 1950, the school of Villejuif in 1956, evolving school buildings in 1963, etc.

When he received the Grand Prize in architecture of the City of Paris in 1982, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs devoted a second exhibition to him. The catalogue produced by the Higher Technical School of Geneva, its architecture section and documentation centre in 1977 was reused for the exhibition of 1982. Like a tribute, both in the catalogue and in the exhibition itself, the work of Prouvé, going from before 1930 to 1976, brought together against a biographical background is illustrated by many photographs lent by Jean Prouvé himself. In 1982, it was important to deepen knowledge of his work and his personality and to show again that Prouvé was convinced of the feasibility of creating housing for all, which harmonises with industrial evolution.