Galerie Downtown—François Laffanour specializes in furniture by European and American masters of design—most of them architects—of the 20th century. For the past 25 years, the gallery has organized thematic and monographic exhibitions on designers such as Jean Prouvé, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Carlo Mollino, and Charlotte Perriand. Shortly after the World War II, this generation of designers brought a new concept to the art of furnishing, dictated by a need for freedom and functionality—a new 'art de vivre' in a time of technological and scientific advances—creating for the first time forms that were pure and without ornament.
Galerie Downtown also owns the Galerie Steph Simon’s archives. Steph Simon was the producer of Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Serge Mouille, and Georges Jouve, as well as Isamu Noguchi furniture, from 1956 to 1974.
Since 2004, Galerie Downtown has had the exclusive rights for Ron Arad’s furniture.
