A Bras Ouverts chair

Designed by Andrée Putman for the Pershing Hall, the A bras ouvert armchair explores a seating typology centered on welcome and continuity of line. Its enveloping form engages the body in a direct, almost intuitive relationship. The base, distinguished by its olive-shaped legs, places the piece in a subtle tension between stability and softness. This detail, both discreet and expressive, belongs to a formal vocabulary in which each element is slightly shifted, never strictly orthogonal. The backrest, attached onto the seat, reveals a deliberately expressed constructive logic: the object does not attempt to conceal its assembly, but rather to make it a point of visual reading. This visible articulation introduces a layering of forms, where planes overlap without merging. Through this piece, Andrée Putman continues her exploration of economy of gesture: reducing without impoverishing, simplifying without neutralizing. The A bras ouvert armchair thus becomes a quiet yet inhabited form, where comfort is paired with a carefully controlled graphic presence.