Jean Prouvé. Tortilleur de tôle
Edited by Editions Parenthèses, Marseille, 2026.
Contributor: Vincent du Chazaud.
Language : French.
Number of pages: 320 pages.
ISBN : 978-2-86364-460-7.
We think we know Jean Prouvé. We think of him as a close associate of Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier, the designer of mass-produced furniture whose pieces now flood the art market. We celebrate him as the inventor of folded sheet metal, the pioneer of the curtain wall, and the visionary architect who permanently transformed the use of metal in architecture. But do we really know the man behind the icon?
Through writings composed between 1944 and 1982—lectures, articles, letters, tributes, and statements of opinion that were at times indignant—a unique, free, and demanding voice emerges. That of a builder who rejected labels, distrusted the word “designer,” and simply called himself a “sheet metal bender”—sometimes an industrialist, builder, or entrepreneur, but never an architect or engineer. He rejected professional squabbles: “Architect? Engineer?… It’s about building. ”
These writings, preserved at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou and brought together here for the first time in their entirety, reveal a Jean Prouvé who was a theorist in spite of himself, a passionate educator, and a humanist convinced that industry could be put to work for the benefit of the greatest number. Here we discover his commitment to Reconstruction, his unshakable faith in the industrialization of building, his resilience after the loss of his factory in Maxéville, and his constant attention to young architects and students at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. This book brings to life the thinking of a major figure of the 20th century—not through the eyes of others, but in his own words.