Born in 1924, François Arnal started painting in 1947 in Paris where he became an active member of the art movements of Abstraction Lyrique and Art Informel and exhibited his work regularly at Galerie Maeght. From 1969 to 1975, Francois Arnal launched Atelier A, a unique and intense ahead-of-its-time art and design venture which purpose was to decompartmentalize and democratise art practices, to free creativity and to invite celebrated and upcoming artists such as César, Malaval and Annette Messager to design furniture pieces and objects.

The venture that broke so abruptly the rules of separation of art and the utilitarian was celebrated at the time - major decorators such as Henri Samuel soon commissioned important pieces and the trendy art and media crowd began to collect their works. It also created much controversy. Finally, failing to become a commercially viable venture, Atelier A sadly closed in 1975. It has since been considered as the principle inspiration of such later important Italian ventures as Alchimia and Memphis.

Collections:
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Mobilier National, Paris

Bibliography:
Françoise Jollant Kneebone & Chloé Braunstein, Atelier A, Editions Norma, 2003