Sergio Camilli Snail Lamp for Bieffeplast, Italy, 1974

Italian entrepreneur, sculptor and designer Sergio Cammilli was born in 1920 in the Province of Pistoia in Tuscany — the home of the Italian Renaissance and the birthplace of legendary modernist furniture brand Poltronova, which Cammilli founded in 1957.

Poltronova is known for embracing the creativity that opposites can introduce to a space. Its radical furniture and lighting designs are simultaneously grounded in classic aesthetics and inspired by what were then new and provocative artistic movements of mid-century Italy (Cammilli had studied at the Porta Romana Art Institute in Florence). This tension resulted in unique and extraordinary pieces at the manufacturer, from eccentric, glove-shaped armchairs to striking dining tables that featured a mix of materials and textures. 

In the year that Cammilli established Poltronova — which began as a modest workshop with a handful of upholsterers — the company won the Compasso d’Oro for the Panchetto chair designed by Luciano Nustrini. Revolutionary Italian architect Ettore Sottsass — a maestro of postmodern design who would later establish the Memphis Group — came on board as an art director in 1958. Poltronova manufactured many of his furniture and ceramic designs. Sottsass’s lighting, seating and other works for Poltronova showcase the designer’s bold experimentation with solid wood, glass, metal and laminate materials.

Other established names in Italian furniture design collaborated with Poltronova’s Sottsass and Cammilli, including Giovanni Michelucci, Gae Aulenti and Angelo Mangiarotti. However, the company truly set itself apart in its partnerships with Superstudio and Archizoom Associati, groups that were part of an irreverent, avant-garde movement in art and design that took shape during the 1960s in Florence, Turin and Milan. Superstudio’s wondrous Gherpe lamp and Archizoon’s Mies armchair, for example, are attributed to Design Centre, a subsidiary of Poltronova that existed from 1967 until around 1979. 

Collectives associated with the avant-garde movement — which would one day be called Italian Radical design — drew on Pop art and minimalism and explored working with unconventional materials to create colorful, quirky and uniquely shaped objects and furnishings. At the time, Cammilli and Sottsass also worked with up-and-coming names in the art world, like painter Max Ernst and sculptor Mario Ceroli.

Poltronova showcased its groundbreaking designs in many exhibitions, such as “La Casa Abitata,” which was held in Florence in 1965. At Milan’s Eurodomus trade show in 1970, Poltronova debuted an entire bedroom collection designed by Sottsass — including his sensuous Ultrafragola mirror. The brand’s furnishings were included in a 1972 exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art called "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape," and in 1977, Poltronova again won the Compasso d’Oro for a book called Fare Mobili con Poltronova (Making Furniture with Poltronova).

Poltronova's enduring and acclaimed furniture designs came to be loved far outside Italy. During the 1960s, importer Charles Stendig met Cammilli through designer couple Massimo and Lella Vignelli and represented the company, helping introduce it to the American market. 

Cammilli left Poltronova during the 1970s and subsequently worked as an independent designer in his own studio. In 1986, he established Mirabili, which he once called a consortium of “well-known artists and designers selected for their particular gifts and their poetic world, lending an innovative and sensitive contribution to the cultural image of the habitat as ‘Art of Living.’”

In 2002, Formitalia Luxury Group acquired Mirabili (now known as Mirabili Arte d'Abitare). In 2005, Poltronova established the Centro Studi Poltronova to recreate some of the company's iconic furniture.

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