Partner Carlton W. Pullin
Queer Places:
DuMont Building, 515 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10022
145 East 72d Street,
New York
Atlantis Hotel, Metropoleos, Next to the Orthodox Cathedral &, the Museum, Thira 847 00, Greece
Athens First Cemetery, Logginou 3, Athina 116 36, Greece
Terence Harold
“Gibby” Robsjohn‐Gibbings (1905 – October 20, 1976) was a London‐born interior decorator, furniture designer and author, who lived in Athens since 1964. He died there in 1976 ending a 34 year relationship with his partner, Carlton W. Pullin, whom he had met in New York.
Robsjohn‐Gibbings was born in London in 1905. He studied at the University of Liverpool and at London University, where he received a B.S. degree in architecure.
Rohsjohn‐Gibbings, who settled in the United States in 1930 and became a naturalized citizen in 1945, maintained a decorating studio, Robsjohn‐Gibbings Ltd., on Madison Avenue for many years. He gained a reputation as a leading advocate of modern design.
His elegant furniture, produced for Widdicomb Furniture Company, of Grand Rapids, Mich., became a forerunner of current contemporary designs. The simple classic forms were derived from classic architecture but were largely devoid of surface decoration.
Robsjohn‐Gibbings, who was known in design circles as “Gibby,” was a witty and pungent critic of such institutions as the antiques business, modern art and American architecture and design. He presented his caustic and controversial, but eminently readable, views in three best‐selling books, “Goodbye, Mr. Chippendale,” 1944. “Mona Lisa's Mustache,” 1947, and “Homes of the Brave,” 1954.
In an article published in 1949, Life magazine described him as “a severe and articulate critic of nearly every style of interior decoration but his own.” Robsjohn‐Gibbings also designed for the Baker Furniture Company of Holland, Mich., and executed designs for fabrics and accessories.
Artist:
T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (British, 1905–1976)Title:
MESA" COFFEE TABLE , 1951Medium:
walnut
Size:
42.5 x 188 x 121.9 cm. (16.7 x 74 x 48 in.)
A list of the clients whose homes he decorated included Mrs. Otto Kahn, Elizabeth Arden, John Frederics, Lily Dache, Thelma Chrysler Foy, Doris Duke and the Nieman‐Marcus department store in Dallas.
In 1962, he designed the seaside villa of Aristotle Onassis as well as the Athens apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Goulandris.
His last major furniture designs were done for Eleftherios Seridis of Athens, then the largest furniture manufacturer in Greece. The collection included 19 furniture pieces based on classic Grecian designs of the fifth century B.C. These were exhibited in Salonika, Milan, Lausanne, London, Canada and in several cities in the United States.
His research for the Greek‐inspired furniture led to the publication of his last book, “Furniture of Classic Greece,” in 1963, which Robsjohn‐Gibbings produced with his longtime associate and life partner, Carlton W. Pullin.
The designer also received many industry awards including the Waters Award in 1950 and the Elsie de Wolfe Award in February 1962, which he shared with a fellow designer, Edward J. Wormley.
A lifelong collector of antiquities, the designer decorated his apartment in a brownstone on East 72d Street and, later, his home in Athens, as a simple background for the display of his classical Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Chinese and pre‐Columbian art.
He died of a heart attack on October 20, 1976. He underwent open‐heart surgery in Dallas a year before his death. His age was 71.
My published books:
