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Designer: Alexander Girard
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  • About
  • Items (343)
  • Auctions (97)

Alexander Girard
1907–1993

The singular vision of Alexander Girard combines a global folk aesthetic with a playful, exuberant attitude toward modernism. During his career, Girard created iconic mid-century furniture, textiles, and objects, which continue to be widely celebrated today. We are proud to hold the top three world auction records for works by Girard.

Upcoming Lots Alexander Girard

248 Alexander Girard

Radio, model 579

estimate: $200–300

starting bid: $50

American Design, 22 May 2025

250 Alexander Girard

Palace Environmental Enrichment panel

estimate: $1,000–1,500

current bid: $50 1 bid

American Design, 22 May 2025

251 Alexander Girard

Wallpaper sample booklet

estimate: $600–800

starting bid: $600

American Design, 22 May 2025

252 Alexander Girard

Two works

estimate: $200–300

current bid: $50 1 bid

American Design, 22 May 2025

5 Things to Know about Alexander Girard

As a teenager, Girard created an imaginary realm, The Republic of Fife, complete with detailed maps, coats of arms, a secret language, flags and currency.

Girard and his wife Susan were avid collectors of folk art. The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, where they lived, holds 90,000 works from their personal collection.

Collaborators and close friends, Charles Eames described Girard as a "Florentine Magpie...there is perhaps no designer more concerned with the selection of beautiful things and their relation to our environment than Alexander Girard."

A lover of wordplay, Girard kept a box of index cards containing palindromes.

Girard was also a curator, designing exhibitions for institutions such as the MoMA, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center.

I am a reasonable and sane functionalist tempered by irrational frivolity.

Alexander Girard

Alexander Girard 1907–1993

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Born in 1907 in New York to an American mother and French-Italian father, Alexander Girard and his family soon moved to Italy where he was raised in a Florentine villa surrounded by art and antiques. As a boy he filled notebooks with creative design sketches displaying an early attention to detail and interest in other cultures even imaging his own country with regional flags and unique symbolism. Inspiration from international folk art became a staple of his artistic legacy as he amassed thousands of artifacts from around the world. Girard studied architecture in Rome, London and New York as his influential and celebrated career began.

Girard designed and directed the groundbreaking show For Modern Living at the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts in 1949, a predecessor to the Good Design shows hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York which he eventually participated in and juried. While living in Michigan in 1952, he was hired by friend and collaborator Charles Eames at Herman Miller eventually establishing the company’s textile division as Director of Design until 1973. In addition to his collections of fabric and wallpaper, his “Environment Enrichment Panels” promoted humanization of the corporate workplace and in 1967 he released the “Girard Group” collection of furniture.

Girard applied vibrant color combinations, sensibility for arranging bold patterns, and passion for playful decoration to his work in textiles, interiors, furniture, graphics, communication and corporate design among many other disciplines. Throughout his career he lent his design to private commissions such as the high modernist Irwin Miller House in Columbus, Indiana with architect Eero Saarinen in 1957, the opulent Latin-American-themed restaurant interior of La Fonda del Sol that opened in 1960 inside the New York Time & Life Building, and a corporate redesign of all visual aspects of Braniff International Airways in 1965.

He challenged the modern aesthetic which rejected decoration and instead created a unique balance of craftsmanship and industry, expression and function, past and present. Known for his positive approach and thoughtful manner he elegantly melded different time periods and cultural backgrounds to create a distinct visual language.

Alexander Girard resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico until he died in 1993. His unique aesthetic vision and legacy is honored permanently by the Santa Fe Museum of International Folk Art’s Girard Wing and recently by a major retrospective from the archives at the Vitra Design Museum, Germany in 2016.

Auction Results Alexander Girard

Alexander Girard

Lounge chairs model 66310, pair

estimate: $7,000–9,000

result: $36,400

Alexander Girard

custom mural from the Irwin Union Bank & Trust Company, Columbus, IN

estimate: $5,000–7,000

result: $27,500

Alexander Girard

Custom mural from the Irwin Union Bank & Trust Company, Columbus, IN

estimate: $5,000–7,000

result: $26,000

Alexander Girard

settee for Braniff Airlines

estimate: $8,000–10,000

result: $22,500

Additional Resources

Girard Wing at the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe
Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe, Vitra Design Museum
Alexander Girard Interview, 1985
Todd Oldham on Alexander Girard
The Last Standing Home Designed by Alexander Girard

Contact our specialists to learn more about a work by Alexander Girard in your collection! 

Infinite are man’s expressions of beauty and love; open your eyes your ears and your heart to them and you will unite the peoples of the world.

Alexander Girard

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