Green Cactus Gufram
2010s Italian Coat Racks and Stands
Textile
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Organic Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Other
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Other
2010s Italian Abstract Sculptures
Plastic
2010s Figurative Sculptures
Other
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Plastic
Vintage 1960s Italian Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Plastic, Foam
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Polyester
Vintage 1980s European Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Fabric
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Polystyrene
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Models and Miniatures
Foam
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Models and Miniatures
Other
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Models and Miniatures
Other
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21st Century and Contemporary Polish Organic Modern Floor Mirrors and Fu...
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and...
Onyx, Brass
2010s South African Minimalist Pedestals
Hardwood
21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Side Tables
Wood, Fabric
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Candlesticks
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Chairs
Velvet, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
2010s Italian Lounge Chairs
Fabric
21st Century and Contemporary Dutch Modern Side Tables
Resin
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Shelves
Resin
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Side Chairs
Polyester, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Mirrors
Glass, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Vases
Porcelain
2010s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Composition
2010s Turkish Night Stands
Wood, Paint
Recent Sales
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and ...
Polystyrene
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Paint, Foam
Early 2000s Italian Coat Racks and Stands
Plastic
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam
Early 2000s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Polyester
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Polystyrene
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Polyester
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam
Vintage 1980s Natural Specimens
Plastic
Vintage 1970s Italian Organic Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Plastic, Foam
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Polystyrene
2010s Italian Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Polystyrene
2010s Italian Organic Modern Figurative Sculptures
Polystyrene
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Abstract Sculptures
Other
2010s Italian Coat Racks and Stands
Plastic
20th Century Italian Coat Racks and Stands
Plastic
Vintage 1980s Italian Other Coat Racks and Stands
Plastic
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam, Paint
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coat Racks and Stands
Foam
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Abstract Sculpt...
Foam
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Abstract Sculpt...
Foam
Green Cactus Gufram For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Green Cactus Gufram?
Gufram Furniture for sale on 1stDibs
The brainchild of the Fratelli Gugliermetto company, Gufram was born in 1966 in Turin, Italy, massively inspired by the avant-garde artistic culture that reigned in Europe during the 1960s and '70s. The brand is known for its CACTUS coat stand and sculptural seating such as the Pratone chair as well as other massive, innovative pieces that fall somewhere between art and furniture.
Starting in the mid-1960s, proponents of Italian Radical Design — which included forward-looking collectives like Archizoom and Studio 65 — broke with formality and convention by fusing the joy of Pop art with the systems of mass production.
One of the brands that formed as a result of these experiments was Gufram, a manufacturer at the forefront of the country’s Radical Design movement. The Gugliermetto brothers teamed up with emerging artists to harness exciting new materials — among them, polyurethane foam, which was originally used in the transportation industry as insulation to keep buses and trains warm.
Despite being credited for revolutionizing Italian design, until the mid-1970s, Gufram was largely unknown outside the small Italian town where it was founded. Nearly six years after the brand’s inception, though, word got out about a furniture brand transforming polyurethane foam into gigantic works of art. So, Gufram brought its playful and witty design concept across the Atlantic to New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where it had its first international show.
Gufram produced much of the Pop furniture — the CACTUS coat rack by Guido Drocco and Franco Mello and the Bocca sofa, in the shape of big red lips, by Studio 65 — that came to define the Anti-Design movement. (Through a relationship with Gufram, the latter was imported to the United States by Charles Stendig, a collector and pioneering importer who helped spark America’s interest in furniture from Finland, Switzerland and Italy during the 1960s and ‘70s.)
Although furniture can be serious business, it’s just as often playful, provocative, energizing and even liberating. Perhaps nothing embodies these characteristics better than postmodern Italian design. And one of the most iconic pieces to originate during Italy’s fertile period of postmodern furniture design is the Pratone chair, designed in 1971 by Giorgio Ceretti, Piero Derossi and Riccardo Rosso.
Representing a magnified portion of a grassy meadow, the Pratone chaise provides a lounging place for an individual or a group. “It is so unlike anything else that it stands out and is still iconic after 50 years,” said Charley Vezza, Gufram’s global creative orchestrator.
Made of painted polyurethane foam, the Pratone chair immediately became the symbol of a new and different approach to interiors when it debuted.
Gufram has become a favorite of the international art crowd and glitterati, and its products have made their way to the world’s most renowned museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vitra Design Museum and more.
British fashion designer Paul Smith and American multi-hyphenate artist A$AP Rocky have collaborated with Gufram over the years. Interior designer Tony Ingrao has called the Pratone chair one of his favorite works and featured the larger-than-life piece in an exhibition he curated at R & Company in 2016.
Find new and vintage Gufram chairs, sofas, mirrors and other Gufram furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
Materials: plastic Furniture
Arguably the world’s most ubiquitous man-made material, plastic has impacted nearly every industry. In contemporary spaces, new and vintage plastic furniture is quite popular and its use pairs well with a range of design styles.
From the Italian lighting artisans at Fontana Arte to venturesome Scandinavian modernists such as Verner Panton, who created groundbreaking interiors as much as he did seating — see his revolutionary Panton chair — to contemporary multidisciplinary artists like Faye Toogood, furniture designers have been pushing the boundaries of plastic forever.
When The Graduate's Mr. McGuire proclaimed, “There’s a great future in plastics,” it was more than a laugh line. The iconic quote is an allusion both to society’s reliance on and its love affair with plastic. Before the material became an integral part of our lives — used in everything from clothing to storage to beauty and beyond — people relied on earthly elements for manufacturing, a process as time-consuming as it was costly.
Soon after American inventor John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid, which could mimic luxury products like tortoiseshell and ivory, production hit fever pitch, and the floodgates opened for others to explore plastic’s full potential. The material altered the history of design — mid-century modern legends Charles and Ray Eames, Joe Colombo and Eero Saarinen regularly experimented with plastics in the development of tables and chairs, and today plastic furnishings and decorative objects are seen as often indoors as they are outside.
Find vintage plastic lounge chairs, outdoor furniture, lighting and more on 1stDibs.