Invitation à l'inauguration de la nouvelle galerie de la Compagnie des Arts Français

Invitation à l'inauguration de la nouvelle galerie de la Compagnie des Arts Français [Invitation to the inauguration of the new Compagnie des Arts Français gallery]Invitation written by the poet Blaise Cendrars for the inauguration of the new Compagnie des Arts Français gallery.
The precious leaflet is illustrated on the verso with an aerial view of the Champs-Elysées in photographic iridescent printing, a small corner section missing.
In 1919, the painter André Mare and the architect Louis Süe founded the Compagnie des Arts Français, a decoration and furniture company joining together architecture, tableware, lighting, wall paper, upholstery fabrics, silverware, glasswork, ceramics and ironwork. The company introduced the French embassy in Washington to Art Deco in the luxury cabins onboard the “Paris” liner, as well as in the first class grand lounge on the “Île-de-France.” Its magnificent creations for the pavilions of the International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial art in 1925 contributed to the birth of the term “Art Deco,” also called “1925 style.” In 1928, the founders Süe and Mare sold the company to decorator Jacques Adnet, who updated the gallery and joined forces with Francis Jourdain, Charlotte Perriand and René Gabriel (and with painters Fernand Léger, Jean Lurçat, Raoul Dufy and Marc Chagall).
The leaflet is an invitation to the inauguration of the entirely renovated gallery on 10 October 1928, which brings together work by Picasso, Foujita, Djo-Bourgeois, Francis Jourdain and René Herbst, Louis Marcoussis, François Pompon, Joseph Bernard, Paul Vera, Bela Voros, Henry de Waroquier, Jean Besnard, Antoine Bourdelle, Carlo Bugatti, Emile-Othon Friez, Laure Albin-Guillot.
Blaise Cendrars, the author of the famous Prose du Transsibérien, was called upon to write the publicity text; he composed an ode to modernity and depicted new avant-garde orientation of the Compagnie des Arts: “I was often asked what the seven wonders of the world were? The seven wonders of the world are: 1. The internal combustion engine, 2. The ball bearing, 3. The cut of a great tailor, 4. Satie's background music (that you can listen to without taking your head in your hands), 5. Money, 6. The naked neck of a woman who has just had her hair cut, and this final novelty: 7. All modern furniture.”
An extremely rare document marking the peak of the Art Deco style in France, bringing together all of the avant-garde craftsmen, painters and sculptors of the 1920s.
To our knowledge there is only one other copy of this invitation, kept in the André Mare collection at the IMEC (Institut Mémoires de l'édition contemporaine, in Normandy).