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Lot Essay
cf. R. Rinaldi, 'Memphis-Alchimia: Differences and Resemblances', Domus, January, 1984;
A. Bangert, Italienisches Möbeldesign, Munich, 1985, p. 116;
G. Sambonet, Alchimia, Turin, 1986, pp. 12-13, 35;
G. Bosoni, ed, La cultura dell'abitare: Il design in Italia 1945-2001, Milan, 2002, p161.
As recounted in Alessandro Mendini's 'The Story of the Proust Chair (1976-2000)', in 1976 Mendini and Francesco Binfaré began a project to design a 'Proust' fabric using a literary point-of-view to develop a shape and surface of an object. The time spent researching Proust's visual and material world further inspired Mendini to design a 'Proust' chair which would reference Proust's descriptions of place and time as well as the impressionist movement in painting. For the former, Mendini chose a replica of an 18th Century-style bèrgere, and for the latter, a detail from a Paul Signac painting. Through the use of Proust's idealogy the painted points of color represent fragments of memory and transform the old chair to something new and significant. It also interested Mendini that he was able to create a 'real' object based on a 'false' object; or in other words, he was able to make a culturally grounded object out of an object void of cultural value, the kitsch faux-antique chair.
The first 'Poltrona di Proust' was made in 1978 and included in Mendini's Sala del Secolo (Room of the Century), alongside works by Alchimia, for the exhibition Incontri ravvicinati di architettura in Ferrara. The chair was subsequently included in the Alchimia catalogue, Bau-Haus (1979) and several examples were produced by Alchimia until 1987. The earliest of these examples, including the present chair, employed an unfinished chair bought in Lombardy, which was then painted by Franco Migliaccio. Of the Alchimia chairs, examples are in the permanent collections of the Design Museum, Gent, Groninger Museum, The Netherlands, Musée des Art Décoratifs, Paris, Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
A. Bangert, Italienisches Möbeldesign, Munich, 1985, p. 116;
G. Sambonet, Alchimia, Turin, 1986, pp. 12-13, 35;
G. Bosoni, ed, La cultura dell'abitare: Il design in Italia 1945-2001, Milan, 2002, p161.
As recounted in Alessandro Mendini's 'The Story of the Proust Chair (1976-2000)', in 1976 Mendini and Francesco Binfaré began a project to design a 'Proust' fabric using a literary point-of-view to develop a shape and surface of an object. The time spent researching Proust's visual and material world further inspired Mendini to design a 'Proust' chair which would reference Proust's descriptions of place and time as well as the impressionist movement in painting. For the former, Mendini chose a replica of an 18th Century-style bèrgere, and for the latter, a detail from a Paul Signac painting. Through the use of Proust's idealogy the painted points of color represent fragments of memory and transform the old chair to something new and significant. It also interested Mendini that he was able to create a 'real' object based on a 'false' object; or in other words, he was able to make a culturally grounded object out of an object void of cultural value, the kitsch faux-antique chair.
The first 'Poltrona di Proust' was made in 1978 and included in Mendini's Sala del Secolo (Room of the Century), alongside works by Alchimia, for the exhibition Incontri ravvicinati di architettura in Ferrara. The chair was subsequently included in the Alchimia catalogue, Bau-Haus (1979) and several examples were produced by Alchimia until 1987. The earliest of these examples, including the present chair, employed an unfinished chair bought in Lombardy, which was then painted by Franco Migliaccio. Of the Alchimia chairs, examples are in the permanent collections of the Design Museum, Gent, Groninger Museum, The Netherlands, Musée des Art Décoratifs, Paris, Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.