DOMINIQUE

From a 1929 French exhibition catalog "Here, under one picturesque pseudonym. are two brilliant artists, Andre Domin and Marcel Genevriere. Their style is a definite one, so recognizable in its concept of form as to at once identify the designers with their work wherever it is seen." The French interior design firm, Dominique, was founded in 1922 by Andre Domin (1883-1962) a self-taught artist, and Marcel Genevriere (1885-1967) a trained architect. Their salon was on the Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris. Though they were among the torchbearers of the great French tradition of fine furniture design, Dominique's slogan was "Delivery from the nightmare of the ancient". Their work represented the steady development of artistic achievement while keeping pace with the times. In 1934, the Mobilier et Decoration critic used Dominique's work as a reference when stating that "a piece of furniture has worked when it successfully withstands the test of time and blends comfortably with earlier pieces." Characterized by simplicity and dignity, their furniture was produced in luxurious materials: rosewood, amaranth, ebony macassar, palissandre, shagreen, and parchment. Their door handles and silvered bronze plaques were produced by Puiforcat. Beginning with the Salon d'Automne in 1922 they exhibited regularly in the Salons of the Societe des Artistes Decoreteurs. In "Une ambassade francaise" pavilion at the 1925 Paris Exposition Intemationale des Arts Decoretiis et Industriels Modernes they designed a suite of private apartments. Among their many commissions for the French luxury oceanliners, they created one of the four grand luxe apartments, Rouen, on the famous Normandie, in 1935; and after World War II they designed furniture for the Palais de l'Elysee (The French 'White House'). In addition to private homes in Paris, Puiforcat's villa in Biarritz, and a commercial interior for perfumerie Houbigant, Dominique received the commission for an entire hotel in Havana. In 1924, in an Art et Decoration review of their SAD exhibit, the critic wrote: "The room and the bed which are reproduced here are in such harmony with life that a quiet but captivating eloquence is born out of them. These lovingly worked creations seem to say to us: Come live among us; here life is gentle, joyous, and measured, for here all is