Page 110 - Architectural Digest - USA (March 2020)
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across the globe, from the Hakone museum in Japan to the
French Embassy in Washington, D.C. Over the past several
decades, he has produced a significant amount of public work,
including sculptures that stand alongside a motorway in
France and the pavement in front of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
De Rougemont has long straddled the line between the fine and
decorative arts, and pieces like his luminous Nuage (“Cloud”)
table, first produced in 1970, and serpentine Pop lamp, a design
that echoes his sculptures, are coveted by design aficionados.
The man himself, now in his 80s, may fly under the radar,
lthough his career has spanned more than half a century, but his getaway in the South of France offers an insight into his
artist Guy de Rougemont remains something of an enigma. personality and temperament. When de Rougemont and his
Aristocratic in bearing and by birth, he cuts a dashing figure wife, actress Anne-Marie Deschodt, who passed away in 2014,
in Parisian society. Yet he is not what the French would call first found the small compound of 18th-century buildings in
a mondain, a worldly, fashionable socialite. “Guy is made up the little village of Marsillargues, it was nothing special. “They
of opposites,” says his gallerist and friend Diane de Polignac. actually stored grain in what is now the house,” de Rougemont
“He is a man of grand culture, but also a free spirit.” explains. “My studio used to house sheep.” DIANE DE POLIGNAC GALLERY (3)
Colorful and vibrant, his work in both two and three Over the ensuing years, however, the couple transformed
dimensions embodies an exuberant joie de vivre. His sculp- this rustic domain into an artistic retreat. “A house like this
tures, which are like line drawings in space, can be found takes a lot of work,” says de Rougemont, who gives all credit for
