Traccia
In 1971, Dino Gavino
launched what he called “l’opera d’arte funzionale”, or functional
artworks, in so doing inaugurating a new approach of furnishing where surreal
objects were adapted for everyday use. This led to the creation of the
Ultramobile collection. These pieces, that went beyond (ultra) furniture
(mobile) engaged the imagination, complementing rational intelligence with a sense
of wonder, where geometry interacted with fantasy. One of these pieces was the
low table that the Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim designed in 1929 for Leo
Castelli’s avant-garde gallery, dubbing it the “Bird Leg Table”, for fairly
obvious reasons. The slim-line legs, and the taloned feet in polished cast
bronze pay homage to the claw-foot furniture of the past. In the 1970s, the
Simon International company produced a limited edition in a smaller size. This
has now been re-released by Cassina, fully respecting the original design.
About Designer | |
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Meret Oppenheim |
Charlottenburg/Charlottenburg, 1913/1985 An artist with a complex personality, a free and instinctive creativity, versatile in application of the various artistic techniques. After her move to Paris in 1932, she gets in contact with all the great masters of surrealism, such as Arp, Giacometti, Breton, Man Ray, Duchamp and Max Ernst who became her intimate companion. The surrealist movement had great influence in Oppenheim’s work but nevertheless she could create her own identity. Her most famous work “Déjeuner en fourrure” (Breakfast in fur), that was purchased by Alfred H. Barr from Charles Ratton Gallery for the MoMA in New York, dates back to these years. Back to Paris in 1939, she took part to the exhibition on “imaginary” furniture with Max Ernst and Leonor Fini; in that event, she presented the famous table with bird’s legs. |