Olivia Putman


Olivia Putman is a French designer, daughter to Andrée Putman and heir to her mother's design studio, Studio Putman. Her works range from interior architecture to scenography and design.

Biography

Olivia Putman grew up in Paris with her mother, Andrée Putman, a designer, and her father Jacques Putman, an art collector, editor and critic. Through family acquaintances and her teenage nights at Le Palace, she got to meet the most eclectic figures of the artistic scene of those days, including Andy Warhol and Yves Saint-Laurent.

Career

After graduating from high school, Olivia completed a bachelor's degree in art history in 1987, at the Paris-Sorbonne University. She then divided her time and workspace between Paris and New York. She became the agent of the Ivorian painter Ouattara Watts, and she befriended with Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom she counted among her friends until he died.
In 1988, for the first time, she becomes an exhibition curator. Thanks to her friend Leo Castelli, she exhibits pieces from Jasper Johns or Mario Merz in Paris.
This first exhibition gained Putman popularity and she started working with the association Usines Ephémères, which converts disused urban spaces into artist studios.

Landscape architecture (1994-2006)

In 1994, she created temporary gardens combining art and agriculture with Jean-Paul Ganem. At this stage, Olivia was an active artist and started studying landscape management.
In 1997, Olivia Putman started as a freelancer and flew to Japan to design her first private garden. Public acknowledgement of her talent only took a few years. Her work for Parfums Caron was awarded the Dream Garden Prize at the Garden Festival of Saint-Cloud in 2000 and she also designed a private garden for Marc Jacobs in Paris.

Studio Putman, from mother to daughter (since 2007)

In 2007, Olivia Putman agrees to take the art direction of the Andrée Putman's agency, a long-standing desire of the founder. The Andrée Putman agency becomes "Studio Putman." Olivia Putman keeps a taste for challenging adventures that combine pleasure and innovation, and that articulate creative ideals with concrete reality.
Olivia Putman embraces a free and generous approach: she imagines luxurious hotels, offices and private residencies always trying to combine comfort and elegance of lines with a rigorous functionality. She designs high-end furniture manufactured with some of the best French craftsmen. She wins the “Best Design” prize in Los Angeles, in 2015, for her Métamorphoses tap collection. She also imagines sets for exhibitions and works with Lalique, Nina Ricci or Herzog et de Meuron.

Interior design

"I believe that we live in a time where people are fed up with "design for design". Design is successful when you have the right answer for its purpose", says Olivia Putman
2000 - "Jardin de Rêve" Prize at the "Festival des Jardins" of Saint-Cloud. Olivia Putman imagined a garden for the Parfums Caron
2009 - Olivia Putman wins the Nespresso contest
2012 - Olivia Putman wins the LATAM Airways contest et and creates VIP lounges in South America
2015 - Best Design Award for the THG collection at the "BD West" Fair, Los Angeles

Personal

Olivia Putman has four children, Julien, Noé, Carl and Louis