Jan and Joël Martel

designer

Jan & Joël Martel cast concrete into stylised trees for the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, working with architect Robert Mallet-Stevens on forms that brought Cubist geometry to architectural ornament. The twin brothers shared a Paris studio designed by Mallet-Stevens and signed their sculpture simply Martel, producing monuments, fountains and decorative reliefs that merged Art Deco streamlining with angular Cubist planes. Their work appeared regularly at the Salon d'Automne and Salon des Tuileries, and they were founding members of the Union des Artistes Modernes. The brothers created public memorials including the Claude Debussy monument on boulevard Lannes in Paris and a stylised figure of Maréchal Leclerc in Antony. Their subjects ranged from racing cars and polo players to birds and musicians, cast in bronze or aluminium with simplified volumes and crisp edges. Works such as Locomotive en marche in polished aluminium demonstrate their interest in modern speed and industrial forms rendered through geometric reduction.