Optimism Collection

by Liz Roache

“I met Patrick Frey when he came to speak at the opening of the new Pierre Frey showroom at the Boston Design Center. I was captivated by the creative independence of this free spirit for whom Home should be a source of well-being. When the conference ended, we talked, he came to visit my gallery-studio next door to his showroom, understanding my work and our collaboration was obvious.”

An American artist designated as the successor to Ati Gropius (daughter of the Bauhaus founder, Walter Gropius, but above all a pupil of the great 20th century master of colour, Josef Albers), Liz Roache has three favourite mediums: coloured paper, gouache and Japanese Sumi ink. She signed a collection “OPTIMISM” with Maison Pierre Frey composed of textiles, wallpapers and rugs.

A tribute to modernity

Faithful to her demanding and rigorous training, Liz Roache starts each project with models made of colored paper cut-outs. Each color, each shape is thought out, constructed, reflected using the Bauhaus principles of bringing out the full potential of simple forms.

'Surprise' required more than 150 attempts before it was finally cut into the right format and a new dynamic shape composed in a sheet cut 13 times. To develop 'Liz', the artist cut 37 strips from a large rectangle and played with all the pieces until he found the right shape: another rectangle made up of striped squares arranged in a staggered pattern. 'Optimist' is a work on the colors of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where Liz Roache taught and which she particularly likes. The artist inventoried the colors of the museum's rooms and exhibitions, cut out circles in the corresponding colors and then assembled them to obtain a harmonious palette of 12 colors from a mixture of each.

Innovative in its astonishing colors and scales faithful to the original works, the collection is a tribute to audacity and instills a true sense of modernity and happiness in interiors.