UNION OF MODERN ARTISTS

Founded in 1929, the Union of Modern Artists (UAM) had the ambition to offer a new art of living and has never ceased to share it with as many people as possible.

The UAM is a vast movement which brings together architects, decorative artists, furniture designers and also painters, sculptors, photographers, fabric and jewelry designers, graphic designers and poster artists… All were driven by the desire to meet the needs of beauty and utility for all. Their works offer a broad panorama of French creation over nearly fifty years, showing the evolution of the “modern” idea.

Founded as a French association opened to international creators, the movement had more than 170 members until its dissolution in 1958. French artists like Fernand Léger, Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, for painting, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Chareau for design, Mallet-Stevens, Jean Prouvé, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Jean Lurçat for architecture, Hélène Henry for textiles, Jean Carlu for graphics… all are outstanding members of the UAM whose list covers all fields of creation.

The exhibition “UAM – Une aventure moderne” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2018 dates back to the French origins of this ideal where all the arts coexist and come together through collective achievements and the works of each. Published on this occasion, this album is characterized by an abundant iconography, which seems essential to retrace, in images, the genesis of French Design.