1984, transparent polyurethane, impressed mark: NEW YORK/1984, height 93 cm, width 53 cm, depth 53 cm, height of seat 51 cm. (DRAX)

A unique object. This chair is No. 7 from the edition of nine, each item of which differs from the others in terms of hardness of material and colour.

Provenance:private ownership, Düsseldorf, Germany

Lit.: A. Bangert, Italian Furniture Design, Munich 1988, p. 92 – F. Vanlaethem, Gaetano Pesce: Architecture. Design. Art, London 1989, p. 83ff. – Gaetano Pesce. Il Rumore del Tempo, La Triennale di Milano 2005, p. 97 – MOMA Highlights since 1980, MOMA, New York 2007, p. 60.

In 1983, Gaetano Pesce developed an experimental series of chairs in collaboration with the New York Pratt Institute that fathomed the boundaries between art and design on the one hand and the possibilities offered by the new material of urethane on the other. The series was launched with Chair No. 1, which resembles a casting mould and is so soft that the chair cannot be sat in. Each of the models to follow turned out to be harder than the previous one. In spite of the free form and the material’s flexibility, the process delivered objects that had a functional value. The surfaces are decorated with various symbols and motifs. The outline of the backrest resembles Gaetano Pesce’s profile.