French Art Deco icon Jean Puiforcat – a short time in Mexico

The beginning of World War II saw a number of European designers head for Mexico. French silver artist Jean Puiforcat, one of the 20th Century’s finest designers of silver hollowware, was among them. Puiforcat spent the war years in Mexico, where pre-Columbian art served as an inspiration.

This biographical information about Jean Puiforcat is excerpted from Oxford Art Online:

(b Paris, 5 Aug 1897; d Paris, 20 Oct 1945).
After service in World War I, he joined the family firm of silversmiths, working as an apprentice and designer.  Concurrently he studied sculpture with Louis-Aimé Lejeune (1884–1969).  Puiforcat designed silver objects in the Art Deco style as simple volumes with smooth profiles and surfaces and proportions based on geometric ratios.  He was a founder-member of the Union des artistes modernes. His designs were mostly for tableware, but in 1934 he exhibited liturgical silver for the first time, and the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937), Paris, included his stone sculpture of René Descartes (The Hague, Maison France).  At the onset of World War II he left France, eventually settling in Mexico (1941).  He opened a studio in 1942 and exported his silver mostly to the USA. He returned to Paris in 1945 but died immediately after his arrival.

Antiquitiesweb notes:

In Mexico, Puiforcat produced new models inspired by Mexican motifs and incorporating more flamboyant decorative details, such as studs and scalloped bands. As Puiforcat said, a piece of tableware had to accomplish its function, “but it is also a companion in our interior….A work of art must in its modest sphere elevate the soul by its beauty.”

Artcyclopedia has links to information and photographs if you’d like to learn more about Puiforcat.

It is often possible to find work by Puiforcat, both French and Mexican, on eBay:

Antique set of Art Deco Jean E. Puiforcat 1937 Modele 'Deauville' US $8,100.00 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Friday Feb-10-2012 9:47:22 PST   | Watch this Item

Jean Puiforcat Cartier Sterling Silver Grooming Set US $14,500.00 Auction Ends: Saturday Feb-18-2012 8:42:00 PST   | Watch this Item

AMAZING JEAN PUIFORCAT HARVEST SILVER MEDAL PENDANT US $500.00 Auction Ends: Wednesday Feb-29-2012 15:05:33 PST   | Watch this Item

JEAN PUIFORCAT FRANCE STERLING SILVER PENDANT 38.4g US $495.00 Auction Ends: Friday Mar-02-2012 8:12:40 PST   | Watch this Item