Vitra Girard Bird

Manufacturer: Vitra | Designer: Alexander Girard, 1945

A Private Experiment, Reissued

In the mid-1940s, Alexander Girard made a series of abstract sculptures from whatever materials were to hand — glass, foam rubber, corrugated cardboard, driftwood, plywood, solid wood. Among them was a small avian figure, hand-carved from apple tree wood — a sculpture that became an icon. It appeared in the July 1945 issue of Arts & Architecture and then disappeared into the archive.

The original is now held by the Vitra Design Museum as part of the Girard Archive. Working in close cooperation with the Girard family, Vitra has reissued it in solid maple sourced in France. The avian features are reduced to the minimum needed for recognition — the result is a figure that reads as both archaic and entirely contemporary. It can stand on its feet or its tail.

Girard worked alongside Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson as one of the defining figures of post-war American design. Textiles were the centre of his practice, but his reach extended to graphic art, furniture, exhibition design, and interiors. The bird predates most of that work — it is an early, private experiment that turned out to be one of his most enduring objects.

Specifications

• Dimensions — W23.5 × D7.5 × H15cm
• Material — Solid maple (France)
• Display — Can stand on feet or tail
• Provenance — Produced in cooperation with the Girard family

Part of the Vitra Accessories collection.