Painter, furniture designer, interior architect, advertiser, and decorator for cinema and theater, Félix Aublet’s work is characterized by both tension and sincerity. As pragmatic as he is artistic, he blends material, color, and function, combining technical knowledge with a strong aesthetic sense.
At the dawn of the 20th century, he grows up in a family environment shaped by the choices of his father, Albert Aublet, a famous genre and Orientalist painter. Every year, following his father’s wishes, the family leaves Neuilly to spend six months in Tunis, where they reside in a palace purchased in 1905. Encouraged by his father, Félix enrolls in the École des Beaux-Arts. He gravitates towards Cézanne’s precubist painting and Derain’s realism, and enjoys mingling with architecture students who are friends of his brother. During this time, he meets Audoul, Gerodias, Ponsard, Georges-Henri Pingusson, and René Hartwig.
He radically breaks away from the artistic environment of his childhood, developing a passion for technological advancements, particularly in cinema, aviation, and automobiles. An admirer of modernism and Le Corbusier, in 1929 he designs his first pieces of furniture with an austere and rigorous simplicity, which are presented at the first UAM Salon in 1930. He also patents an invention for "a set of metal furniture made from standard elements and adjustable tubular chairs." In 1931, he designs the "boule lamp," which pivots on a base and features a curved tube holding an adjustable half-sphere lampshade. This design is a great success.
His studio receives numerous commissions for interior architecture projects. In 1932-1933, he designs the apartments of François Pernod and François Barret in Paris. He also designs school furniture for the Suresnes school, built by Beaudoin and Lods in 1935. For the new building of the CPDE (Parisian Electricity Company), he creates office desks for typists with filing cabinets and shelves, manufactured by Strafor. Between 1934 and 1936, he designs the offices for the Compagnie fermière de Vichy and rooms for the Foch Hospital Foundation in Suresnes.
In 1935, Félix Aublet and Robert Delaunay co-found the association "Art et Lumière." They share many common interests. During the 1937 International Exposition of Art and Technology, Audoul is in charge of the aeronautics and railways pavilion, in collaboration with Jack Gerodias. Robert Delaunay and Félix Aublet produce enormous painted panels, assisted by forty other artists, including Bissière, Estève, Le Moal, Manessier, and Survage. The models are signed "Art et Lumière, Delaunay and Aublet." These large murals allow modern artists to engage in a dialogue with the public.
During the Occupation, Aublet reaches out to his painter friends for the cabaret of the Aigle d'Or in Nice in 1942 (with Nicolas de Staël), and for the
cabaret at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1945 (with Bissière, Manessier, and de Staël). His style evolves during this period.
Highly appreciated, he is sought after for cinema and theater set design projects. In 1947, through these projects, he meets his future wife, Franco-American Jane Lithiby. In 1932, he invents the "rolling advertisement" for François Pernod, and from 1948 onwards, applies this advertising strategy for numerous brands, including Cinzano. He moves to Aix-en-Provence in 1954.
After an accident in 1959 that leaves him paraplegic, he returns to painting.
