Maria Pergay ^People

After the war, Pergay ended up studying costume and set design at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques, also attending sculpture classes with the artist Ossip Zadkine in Montparnasse, Paris. Al these experiences would end up influencing the aesthetic sense of the designer, who started her career in 1956, at a time dominated by modernist ideas. While most ofher contemporaries considered theclassical style to be athing of the past, Pergay developed her own vocabulary, inspired by antiquity, Japanese art and the natural qualities of the materials.Although the designer has, throughout her career, experimented with variousmaterials, she ended up being known for her brilliant work with stainless steel. The way she managed to mold this metal and give the furniture an assumed sculpturality, would eventually make it one of the most significant figures in French design of the 20th century.Having a special sensitivity to luxury and the unexpected, Pergay created iconic pieces such as Lit Tapis Volant (his first work in stainless steel) or Chaise Anneaux,both from 1968. Refusing to be designated solely as an artist, designer or decorator, but as a 'captor of ideas, Pergay continues to create even today, despite her advanced age, a real inspiration. Pergay lives and works in Paris, France. Today, her works are held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum ofArt in New York.