Serge Mouille

Specialties

Design

Serge Mouille is an artist and master silversmith, born on December 24, 1922, in Paris. He developed a talent for drawing at an early age and entered the School of Applied Arts at thirteen.

He specialized in metalwork and earned his silversmithing diploma. His mentor, Gabriel Lacroix, made him a master in the art of shaping metal with a hammer. After working for a few years in Lacroix's workshop, he started his own business in 1945, intending to create tableware. Concurrently, he taught at the National School of Applied Arts and Crafts and began his research on metal forms and the artisanal fabrication of lighting fixtures.

His meeting with Jacques Adnet, director of the Compagnie des Arts Français, in 1951 marked a turning point in his life. Adnet commissioned him to design a "large light fixture" for his South American clientele. Serge set to work and created the Three-Arm Floor Lamp, gradually transitioning from master craftsman to artist creator by developing the now-famous Black Forms series. The Three-Arm Floor Lamp and the Straight Floor Lamp were among the first models in this series. In 1955, he was elected to the Society of Decorative Artists (SAD). The following year, Steph Simon opened a gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, positioning it at the forefront of modernity and the functional integration movement for interior design. The gallery showcased exclusive models by Jean Prouvé and Charlotte Perriand, lighting fixtures by Serge Mouille, ceramics by Georges Jouve and Norbert Pierlot, and later, pieces by Isamu Noguchi, Sori Yanagi, Tecno, and Jean Luce. Special commissions included cafeterias and green spaces at the University City of Antony, universities of Strasbourg and Aix-Marseille, the Flight Test Center in Brétigny-sur-Orge, and lighting for the transatlantic liner France.

In 1961, thanks to the Model Creation Society (SCM), he was able to exhibit a new collection of lighting combining fluorescence and incandescence at the Household Arts Salon. His production ceased definitively in 1964.

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