Nathalie Du Pasquier

Nathalie du Pasquier (1957-) is a French artist and designer who loves to work with pure, intricate geometries and intense contrasting colors, with creations of clear emotional impact and with a radical and post-modern style. A "Memphis style", in a nutshell, and not by chance: du Pasquier is in fact part of the young designers who had gathered in Milan around Ettore Sottsass and who had founded the movement since the early 1980s. Among them was also the Englishman George Sowden, who would become her husband and who would share many projects with her. Du Pasquier's creations refer to ethnic suggestions of various origins, but above all African, assimilated during a long period spent traveling the world in exotic locations during her youth in the 1970s. Initially also interested in furnishings and fabrics, his creations for Memphis gradually concentrated above all in research on carpets and fabrics, in a path towards two-dimensionality which would then culminate towards the end of the decade in an abandonment of design to devote himself solely to painting. This turning point coincides with a return home, in her native Bordeaux, where she will also be director of the local Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Over the years and the growth of successes, her art too will rediscover the three dimensions through the stratagem of the "cabins", special installations devised by her consisting of entirely decorated panels. In recent years, du Pasquier has also reconnected with design, for example by designing vases for Bitossi Ceramiche. Her motifs have been used for carpets and fabrics by brands such as La Chanche, Karimokou New Standard or ZigZagZurich.