René Guilleré established Primavera in 1912 at the design studio of the Paris department store Printemps. Conceived as a tool in creating the “aesthetically unified interior,” Primavera industrially produced an array of objects for the home at factories in Saint-Radegonde-en-Touraine and Longwy. Guilleré, who actively searched for artists across the country, was interested in creating non-traditional ceramics and particularly those that challenged the ever-present Art Nouveau style. In addition to discovering unknown talent, he avidly commissioned well-known designers including Robert Lallemant, Jean and Jacques Adnet, Mercel Renard, Madeleine Sougez, Claude Lévy, and Colette Guedon, who acted as artistic director from 1938 to 1972. Some of Lévy’s creations for Primavera were famously displayed at the 1925 Paris Exposition. After the Exposition, Printemps organized the Petite foire des Arts décoratifs annually. Additionally, the atelier Primavera participated in the Salons des artistes décorateurs, Salon des Indépendants, Artistes français, Salon du goût français, Salon des Arts appliqués, Salon des Arts ménagers, Salons d’automne (from 1922), Exposition coloniale (1931), and the Exposition sur l’Artisanat with the musée des Arts et Traditions populaires (1935).

References:

Anne Lajoix, La Céramique en France de l’Exposition des Arts décoratifs aux années d’après-guerre 1925-1947 (Paris: Sous le Vent, 1983), 148-9.

Karen McCready, Art Deco and Modernist Ceramics (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 168.

Edgar Pelichet, La Céramique Art Déco (Lausanne: Grand Pont, 1988), 140.