Union Des Artistes Modernes

French group of architects and designers founded in Paris in 1929 and active until 1958. Its founder-members included Charlotte Perriand, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Francis Jourdain, Ren? Herbst (1891-1982) and Jean Puiforcat. During the group's existence membership varied widely. The activities of the U.A.M. may be divided into two periods. Between 1929 and 1939 the group represented a centre of activity for a broad range of tendencies within the French avant-garde, from advanced technology to fine craftsmanship. Although spokespersons for the group at times claimed to be creating a 'movement', in reality the U.A.M. was not doctrinaire; it was essentially devoted to the idea of the unity of the arts common to the ideology of applied arts reform from the mid-19th century. Le Corbusier was a member of the U.A.M., and his Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau for the Exposition Internationale des Arts D?coratifs et Industriels Modernes (Paris, 1925), intended as a mass-produced dwelling, was in keeping with the U.A.M.'s aim to design prototypes for mass production.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The UAM was founded in May 1929 by an influential group of committed Modernist designers who had become disillusioned with the conservatism of the Societé des Artistes Décorateurs (SAD), from whom they split. SAD was largely geared to the expensive tastes of an affluent urban cultural elite, an outlook evident in the majority of lavish decorative displays seen at the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels. Members of the UAM included Robert Mallet-Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier, Jean Puiforcat, Franz Jourdain, René Herbst, Pierre Chareau, and Louis Sognot. The group's first exhibition, L'Art moderne cadre de la vie contemporaine, was held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in 1930. In addition to the distinguished list of French Modernist participants, it also included the work of foreign designers such as Eileen Gray, Bart Van Der Leck, and Gerrit Rietveld. In 1934 UAM issued its first manifesto entitled Pour l'art moderne cadre de la vie as a strategic counter to the attacks being made against the Modernist avant-garde. It also played an important role in the 1937 Paris Exposition with its emphasis on sciences and techniques. After the Second World War the UAM re-established itself with the 1949 exhibition entitled Formes utiles, objets de notre temps. In 1950 Formes Utiles became an organization in its own right, mounting an annual exhibition. UAM was wound up in 1958.