Table LEDA PHILIPPE HIQUILY

This work is referenced in the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist (1948-2011) Vol.2, under N°742 - P 61

H.40 x D.115 cm

Art furniture 

Philippe Hiquily is an artist generally better known as a sculptor than as a furniture designer. However, this second aspect of his work has always occupied a very important place in his life as well as in his artistic career, and this for at least two reasons. The first is simply the number of pieces of furniture he has made, about one hundred and fifty original pieces, which is more than a Sunday pass time and is, moreover, not very far from the number of his sculptures, about five hundred unique works (not taking into account the editions).

Of a more personal nature, the second reason reminds us that it is even thanks to furniture that Hiquily was able to pursue his career as a sculptor. He always said that it is because he did not sell his works and was without resources, that to survive, he started to create furniture objects.

In 1991, Francois Jonquet published a book about him at the Cercle d'Art, then in 2005 Pierre Cabanne published Hiuqily, bronzes et mobilier at the Editions de La Différence. This renaissance as a sculptor has not made the artist forget what has been his salvation for nearly two decades, furniture. In 1999, Jean-Marc de Margerie, then director of the Hôtel Lutitia, and Béatrice Beldarek, the soul of the place, asked him to design furniture. Like Arman, César and Takis, he created several pieces, notably the famous cigar cellar - with a belly box that keeps the cigars and a mouth that lets them out -. In the continuity of this collaboration, the hotel also inaugurates in 2010 a suite in his name entirely furnished with his creations.