The work of Vico Magistretti is to be celebrated with More or less 60 chairs in 60 years.
The designer readily admitted he was obsessed by chairs, saying in 2003: ‘I have a somewhat shameful passion for chairs. I think it’s because they’re the hardest thing, they don’t forgive you anything. It’s hard to be happy with a chair.’
Fondazione studio museo Vico Magistretti is returning to his obsession until 26 February, 45 years after Magistretti staged the Twenty years, Twenty chairs solo exhibition in Milan, which he followed with Twenty-one years, twentyone chairs in London in 1981.
The MIlan exhibition unfolds along two paths: a timeline of original drawings and photographic reproductions of 66chairs – too many for the small studio museum to show – designed by Magistretti over his sixty-year career. In addition, a dozen or so chairs are available for visitors to sit on and try out, along with just as many notebooks filled with the stories behind each chair: insights, collaborations, revisions, reconsiderations, production challenges, and some legal troubles.
Curator Luca Poncellini, who practically moved in to the museum to read and re-read letters, agreement drafts, faxes, and press kits; study patent files and photos of prototypes and models; examine drawings and decipher notes to allow each chair to tells its own story, revealing the vision of a designer who left an indelible mark on both Italian and international design history.
