PARIS.- On 28 September 2020,
Artcurial will present an evening sale, the third in the series dedicated to Italian Design. This auction sale will include a hundred lots featuring pieces by designers from Gio Ponti to Gino Sarfatti, and Alessandro Mendini to Gastone Rinaldi. The first two sales dedicated to Italian Design in 2019 were a great success, greatly exceeding their estimates.
From Vittoriano Viganò to Studio B.B.P.R.
There is a star lot in this year’s sale that stands out : the floor lamp Mod.1049 by Vittoriano Viganò, created in 1951 and produced by Arteluce. The son of painter Vico Viganò, Vittoriano graduated from Politecnico, learning alongside the Brutalist architects of the Studio B.B.P.R. He was responsible for the phrase « From the spoon to the city » and according to him, the architecture of the interior shared the same methodology as architecture and urbanism. He went on to assist Gio Ponti for many years.
During the 1950s Vittoriano Viganò became the artistic director at Arteluce, introducing his approach to rationalism into the company. It was while he was involved at Arteluce that he created Model.1049, the very rare floor lamp echoing Model 1057 by Gino Sarfatti. This piece offered by Artcurial has an estimate of 25 000 to 35 000 €.
There is a clear connection to another item in the sale: the bench from the Studio B.B.P.R. This piece comes from Sforza castle in Milan, which has been transformed into a museum today. It is constructed in walnut, black lacquered iron and brass. Designed in 1952 by the Studio B.B.P.R., a group of four Italian architects, for the Sala delle Asse of the Sforza museum in Milan, it is a perfect example of Italian Rationalism. This item has an estimate of 10 000 to 15 000 €.
The Proustian armchair by Alessandro Mendini
A cult piece today, the « Proust » armchair by Alessandro Mendini will be offered by Artcurial. In period, Mendini drew his inspiration from France, and the places where Marcel Proust had lived. The Italian designer was fascinated by the author of A la recherche du temps perdu, and decided to dedicate an armchair to him.
This piece, a post-modern seat created in 1978 by the Studio Alchimia, has a distinctive « faux » baroque style, with a structure and fabric hand-painted in acrylic.
The dots of paint are a reference to pointillism and represent details of paintings by Paul Signac. They take over the entire structure and fabric of the chair, causing the form to dissolve into a kind of nebula. Mendini defined it as a work of Re-design and the result of a collage of a fake-antique armchair with details of a meadow by Paul Signac.
The « Mendinienne » concept of Re-design came from the idea that everything had already been invented and the only thing left to do was simply to revisit pre-existing objects and add decorative or structural elements to modify the original dynamic. There are only around 15 hand-made examples like the one presented by Artcurial. This rare armchair is estimated at 15 000 et 20 000 €.
The work of Gastone Rinaldi and Gabriella Crespi will also be highlighted with a DU55 suite of sofa and armchairs, a pair of DU43 armchairs and the Saturno sofa by designer Gastone Rinaldi, alongside Gabriella Crespi’s Plurimi series with a large scale “Scultura” table and a « Cubo Magico » bar. Finally, the work of Andrea Branzi will be honoured with a signed and numbered example of his bench « Animali Domestici ».
