Putman, Andrée

Andrée Putman, original name Andrée Christine Aynard, (born December 23, 1925, Paris, France—died January 19, 2013, Paris), French designer, known for her Minimalist, avant-garde furnishings and interior designs.

Putman was educated in Paris at the Collège d’Hulst and studied piano at the Paris Conservatory, winning the school’s highest award at age 20. She became frustrated with musical training, however, and developed an interest in the visual arts; she was particularly intrigued by contemporary painting. Putman began her professional life as a journalist in 1950 at Femina magazine; she was a design columnist at Elle from 1952 until 1958, and she then worked at L’Oeil as the interiors editor from 1960 to 1964. Self-taught in design, she was also a stylist for the Prisunic department stores in Paris from 1958 to 1967.

After working with various publicity agencies and designer groups from 1968 until well into the 1970s, she founded her own furnishings and interior design business, Écart, in 1978. Although she had turned her back on a career in music, her training informed her design practice—she reinterpreted the balance, harmony, and rhythm of musical composition in her designs through the restraint of simple lines, monochromatic colours, and unique combinations of materials. Through Écart, Putman reissued classic Modernist furnishings from 1930s designers such as Eileen Gray, Mariano Fortuny, and Pierre Chareau. She also began creating boutiques for well-known fashion designers such as Thierry Mugler (Paris, 1978), Yves Saint Laurent (15 throughout the United States, 1980–84), and Karl Lagerfeld (Paris, New York City, Toronto, and Melbourne, Australia, 1980–85).

Commissioned in 1984 to refurbish, on a tight budget, New York City’s Morgans Hotel, Putman shunned what she called the “vulgarity” of traditional luxury and opted instead for a streamlined yet opulent sense of comfort. She used her signature black-and-white checkerboard tiles throughout the hotel’s hallways and bathrooms, and she designed the lobby and guest room interiors in shades of gray. Putman subsequently received other important commissions, including interiors for the circular Wasserturm Hotel in Cologne, Germany (1990), which was converted from a water tower built in 1868, and for the Orchid Club House in Kōbe, Japan (1992). She also designed the interior of Air France’s Concorde jet (1993).

Putman received numerous prizes, among them the Interior Design Hall of Fame Award (New York, 1987) and the Grand Prix National de la Création Industrielle (Paris, 1995). Her later work included sets for Peter Greenaway’s 1996 film The Pillow Book. Putman also continued to create original designs in home furnishings, such as lighting, tableware, and fabrics. She opened a new company under her own name in 1997 and released a perfume named Andrée Putman in 2001.