Cooper Hewitt says...
Hungarian-born Mathieu Matégot (1910–2001) moved to Paris in 1931 after completing his studies at the School of Applied Arts in Budapest. Matégot began his career as a set designer for theater. Matégot developed a passion for tapestry design while training with Jean Lurçat (1892–1966), a French artist known for ushering in a renaissance in tapestry design during the first half of the twentieth century. Today, Matégot is primarily recognized for his tapestries, which has overshadowed his successful career as a prolific interior and furniture designer in the 1950s. Matégot employed a range of cutting-edge materials, including perforated sheet metal, brightly-colored Formica and enameled steel-rod supports, for use in his inventive modernist furniture creations, which included dining sets, side tables and beds. One of his most notable designs is for a three-legged “Nagasaki” chair with a scooped oval perforated sheet metal seat set atop a tubular steel frame. His Japanese- and Scandinavian-inspired furnishings figured prominently in his interior designs, which display the light, slender and low-slung proportions popular during the years immediately following World War II.
