In Situ (Jul 2017)
Jean Montariol et les artistes toulousains : pour une histoire matérielle et sociale de la collaboration entre architecte et artistes dans l’entre-deux-guerres
Abstract
Between 1925 and 1935, the socialist municipality in Toulouse undertook the construction of many municipal buildings: a sports park, a public library, a labour exchange, eight school groups, bath-houses, garden-cities and social housing. The architect of the city, Jean Montariol, was entrusted with the design of many of these projects. Decorative ensembles such as frescoes, carvings, paintings, ironwork and the furniture were made by Toulouse artists, selected by the local authorities. A Toulouse school emerged, independent of external artistic influences. The buildings are expressions of the municipality’s objectives of social progress, higher living standards and the intellectual education of underprivileged social classes, nurturing the body and the soul. Under the influence of Art Deco, the collaboration between architects and artists emerges here, through its ‘Meridional art’, as a modern expression of local identity. The social and material analysis of the collaboration between architects and artists draws into question the relationships between architecture, technical progress and society, both at the time when the designs were realised (composition, materials, actors, construction work) and today, in the future of the buildings (reception, preservation of drawings, recognition of heritage value).
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