Joseph André Motte

Joseph-André Motte (1925 - 2013) is an interior designer and one of the great figures of French design in the 1950s and 1960s.

At theÉcole des arts appliqués à l'industrie (now ENSAAMA), he studied under René Gabriel Louis Sognot and Albert Guénot, and graduated top of his class in 1948. He then obtained his first collaboration with theBon Marché art studio. One of his first models, the Tripodes armchair (1949) in beech and woven rattan, soon made him famous. In 1954, with Pierre Guariche and Michel Mortier, he founded theAtelier de recherche plastique (ARP) and also joined the Groupe 4 created by Georges Charron, René-Jean Caillette Geneviève Dangles and Alain Richard. During these years, Joseph-André Motte began a collaboration with the famous publisher Steiner. He designed, among others, the mythical 740, 770 and 800 armchairs, the A6 chair and the Bahut enfilade. Timeless pieces of French chic, elegant and refined, which revisit classicism with a modern touch.

In the field of decorative arts, he also supplied various models of luxurious furniture for the Mobilier National in the 1960s. His brilliant career continued with the commissioning of several large-scale public facilities. Orly Sud airport (1958 - 1961), Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport (1974) and Lyon Satolas airport (1975), Le Havre ferry terminal (1963/1964)... And above all, from 1973 to 1983, he renovated, with the architect Paul Andreu, a hundred or so Paris metro stations for which he designed the seat-shells that can still be seen today. Together, they proposed a new style, known as Andreu-Motte, dominated by white, notably with the presence of the famous bevelled tiles.

Joseph-André Motte will share his rich experience by teaching in several higher education establishments such as theÉcole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, Camondo and theÉcole Boulle.