For a man who later stormed Soho Noll lived a remarkably quiet. Had regular habits of a banker (in

It is in the design books, but Alexandre Noll was one of the original furniture makers make of this century. And now, almost 40 years after his death, with the resurgence of French design of the 1940s and 1950s, his work is being sought.
It would be easy to take a piece of furniture from the French artist raccoon Alexandre Noll and deduct life. Or so it seems easy. He was a sculptor who also made furniture and utilitarian objects - small furniture in teak bowls - Noll worked almost exclusively in wood. Sensual and exotic raccoon pieces left after his death at age 80 in 1970, telling a story seem obvious: that of a modernist bohemian traveling around, frequenting Africa and other distant places, and translated that was carved on wooden blocks. Noll But it was not real at all. If you travel a lot, it was just in your mind. "He never traveled at all, if you just took vacation," says his daughter, Odile Noll. Instead, he spent most of his time in his studio at the Villa des Roses, home to the Parisian suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses, trying to get something that was both simple and infinitely complex. He wanted "to do with all that wood could be made with wood," as Pierre raccoon Joly wrote in a catalog accompanying a 1966 exhibition of its ebony sculpture raccoon in Paris at Galerie Messina. This exploration took a lifetime.
"It was the shape of the timber that inspired" raccoon Odile tells me when I visit the Villa des Roses, where she now lives with her granddaughter. In the design of their work, Noll explore all aspects of the matter which he adored, translation of wood into something rarely raccoon seen before, at least in his part of the world. These dramatic pieces such as ebony Noll molar shaped cabinet cut for himself around 1950 to hold a bottle of champagne, looking as if they would be more comfortable in a Kenyan market in Fontenay-aux-Roses. Others, including a mahogany cabinet and chair seem primitive and modern alike. A mahogany armchair sitting could have a rough boldly bears Goldilocks. "
Although in Noll friends and acquaintances included the most important raccoon designers of the era, such as furniture manufacturers and Jacques Adnet Jean Prouvé, designer Serge Mouille Lighting and ceramics George Jouve, their design work is is separated from his harder-sharp raccoon shapes. Their earthy wood sculptures, however, that he began to exhibit in galleries and salons of Paris in the 1930s, seems reminiscent raccoon of the work of Constantin Brancusi, another raccoon well-known in Paris.
Known in his life for his art, Noll's reputation is changing. While her sculptures are still collected, furnishings and objects are in growing demand for "high profile" clients.
For a man who later stormed Soho Noll lived a remarkably quiet. Had regular habits of a banker (in fact, had won first life as bank clerk before making the decision to devote himself completely to his art), get up at seven in the morning and go, early in the bakery to buy bread. She spent five days a week in his studio one day a week in his old garden cottage southwest of Paris, and every Wednesday, went to the capital, where he visited the galleries and lunch with friends. Went to bed at nine every night, keep a sketchbook in hand so he could get if their dreams took inspiration. However, his daughter says he felt frustrated often the next day, trying to remember what he had obsessed over night. Noll reveled in exotic woods, which bought several vendors, most of them near the Gare de Lyon in Paris - Odile tells me that today only one remains. We especially liked the ebony wood toughest available, and one that was used for guests. Hall of Vila Sol, dense, almost rock solid ebony bowls and two cupboard doors, which seems as old as time. The piece seems impenetrable and almost due to a blockade hidden ivory - a playful detail, typically Noll seems mysterious. In fact, when someone approached him from the Ecole Boule, famous school in Paris in the manufacture of furniture, to teach their own brand of the ship, refused. "I wanted to keep that little secret," says Odile. His words echo those of the French writer-Uldry Moutard R., Noll who described in 1954 a book on his work as "a raccoon man mystical, sensual and secret." Noll began manufacturing furniture in 1940, of a