André Dubreuil (1951-) is a French designer known as the “iron poet”: the furnishings that made him famous are in fact made from thin iron bars usually used as support for reinforced concrete, which he bent into poetic shapes to give life to seats, lamps and furnishing accessories. Originally from Lyon, he moved to London at the age of eighteen to study at the Inchbald School of Design, later earning a living as an antiques dealer and trompe-l’œil painter. The meeting that would change his life dates back to 1985: called to work on Chantal Coady’s “chocolate boutique” Rococo Cholates he had the opportunity to collaborate with the English designer Tom Dixon, who was also working on the same project. Dubreuil was struck by the “poetics of welding” of Tom Dixon, who in those years was experimenting with the creation of his first metal furnishings and who would act as his teacher, teaching him his techniques and taking him into his studio for some time. One of Dubreuil’s first works still remains his most famous: it is the Spin Chair, displayed in many museums around the world and marketed today by the Ceccotti brand. Starting in the early 1990s, Dubreuil moved to France, where he continued his experiments on unique pieces of art design, expanding his research to other materials such as wood, glass or porcelain.
