Dizzy
To mark the hundredth anniversary of the birth
of Max Huber, Poltrona Frau pays homage to the famous Swiss artist and graphic
designer with Billie and Dizzy, a collection of rugs based on drawings of two
unproduced works taken from the archive and dating respectively to 1936 and
1947. The original designs have remained unchanged in terms of their
proportions and the thickness of their lines and have simply been adapted to
the dimensions of the rugs.
The Dizzy rug is based on a design which stands
out for its series of cadenced lines, its rhythm bringing to mind Dizzy Gillespie,
one of the inventors of bebop and modern jazz. A tribute to a genre of music
much loved by the artist and a passion that influenced his work.
As well as his famous works for Esselunga, La
Rinascente, Coin, Rai and Montecatini, during his career Max Huber carried out
lots of projects connected with this form of music, such as “Ritmo” magazine in
1950 and “Jazztime” in 1952, the cover of jazz encyclopaedia “Messaggerie
Musicali” in 1952, and the poster for the “Jazz Chiasso weeks” festival of
1985.
Dizzy has a motif formed of small broken lines
in two different colours positioned both horizontally and vertically. The
strokes originate at the centre of the rug and form a radial effect stretching
towards the external edge, gradually becoming longer and thinner. The design is
based on a musical score and therefore suitable for being presented in
different variants and dimensions.
The rugs in the Dizzy collection come in two
sizes: 200X300 cm and 250X350 cm, and four very stylish shades, two dark: Blue
Green, Deep Red and two light: White Sand and Light Gray.
The Dizzy rug is entirely handmade on wooden
looms using the Persian knot technique and has a density of around 50,000 knots
per m2 with a long pile.
The selection of raw materials is essential in
making the surface soft, resistant but also glossy. Only top-quality 100%
natural carded and hand-spun wool is used. It is for this reason that the
colours are not absorbed in a perfectly uniform way, giving the dyes unique
degrees of intensity. Dizzy has a 4 cm-high edge produced using the Kilim
technique and made from wool on the two shorter sides, in the same colour as
the background of the rug.
The collection is distinctive for the
saddle-leather label hand-sewn on the back of the rugs and stamped with the
Poltrona Frau logo. To keep the corners rigid, two strips of fabric are sewn
onto the back of the rug and embroidered with Max Huber’s signature.