Olivia Putman

Olivia Putman (born 1964) is a French designer, daughter to Andrée Putman and heir to her mother's design studio, Studio Putman. Her works range from interior architecture to scenography and design. Olivia Putman grew up in Paris with her mother, Andrée Putman, a designer, and her father Jacques Putman, an art collector, editor and critic. Through family acquaintances and her teenage nights at Le Palace, she got to meet the most eclectic figures of the artistic scene of those days, including Andy Warhol and Yves Saint-Laurent. After graduating from high school, Olivia completed a bachelor's degree in art history in 1987, at the Paris-Sorbonne University. She then divided her time and workspace between Paris and New York. She became the agent of the Ivorian painter Ouattara Watts, and she befriended with Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom she counted among her friends until he died. In 1988, for the first time, she becomes an exhibition curator. Thanks to her friend Leo Castelli, she exhibits pieces from Jasper Johns or Mario Merz in Paris. This first exhibition gained Putman popularity and she started working with the association Usines Ephémères, which converts disused urban spaces into artist studios.