MATEGOT Mathieu

After studying at the Beaux Arts in Budapest, Mathieu Matégot moved to France in 1931 where he worked in various professions: set designer for the Folies Bergères, window dresser for the Galeries Lafayette, stylist for Parisian fashion houses. A volunteer in the French army during the Second World War, he was taken prisoner and released in 1945. Upon his return to Paris, he set up a workshop for creating handcrafted furniture. His work as a designer covered a relatively short period, until the early 1960s. During this period, he notably created the “nagasaki” tripod chair (1954) and the “copacabana” armchair (1955), one of which is now part of the design collection of the Musée des Arts décoratifs and the other of the design collection of the Georges Pompidou Center. These two pieces made of steel tube and perforated sheet metal, a material that Mathieu Matégot was one of the first to use, are particularly representative of his work. During this decade, he also carried out numerous decoration projects in France and abroad: Hôtel de France in Conakry (1951), Drugstore Publicis and Maison de l’ORTF in Paris (1962).