Gufram 'Attica' Armchair by Studio 65, circa 2008, Italy

About the Item

Gufram Attica armchair. For Studio 65 The form of a broken column's capital Made with polyurethane. Numbered 130/500. Very decorative. Signed with stamped. circa 2008, Italy. Very good vintage condition. Is suitable for the outdoors, as well. The Attica armchair, a section of the capital of a column, is hand-sculpted from a block of polyurethane. It is a contemporary variation of the original workmanship of the Athenian columns with the contrast with the softness and lightness of polyurethane. Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, and social organization which reflected the newly emerging industrial world, including features such as urbanization, architecture, new technologies, and war. Artists attempted to depart from traditional forms of art, which they considered outdated or obsolete. Ponte’s works are a continuation of this spirit into today’s aesthetics.

Creator:

Studio 65 (Manufacturer),Gufram Furniture (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 30.7 in (77.98 cm)Width: 45.3 in (115.07 cm)Depth: 43.3 in (109.99 cm)Seat Height: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)

Style:

Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Polystyrene

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

2000-2009

Date of Manufacture:

2008

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. Very Good Vintage Condition.

Seller Location:

Girona, ES

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU952632821142

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Shop All Studio 65

Studio 65

Every so often a company produces a design so iconic that it comes to symbolize its entire history. For Studio 65, the Italian avant-garde design collective cofounded by Franco Audrito, Piero Gatti and others, this was the Bocca sofa — alternatively known as the “lips sofa,” “red lip sofa,” “Dalí sofa” or Marilyn sofa.”

Studio 65’s lip-shaped seat — modeled after a singular feature from Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí’s portrait of Mae West — became a design icon shortly after its release in 1970 and remains a beloved collector’s item today. The Bocca symbolizes Studio 65’s playful, subversive approach to design. The collective took shape in Turin in 1965 with the goal of avant-garde experimentation. The group would eventually grow to comprise artists, designers and poets, including Roberta Garosci, Enzo Bertone, Paolo Morello and Paolo Rondelli. It would also play a central role in the Italian Radical design movement, the practitioners of which found inspiration in Pop art, minimalism and Arte Povera.

The Bocca sofa was born of one of Audrito’s earliest commissions — to design a gym in Milan — which he accepted just a year after graduating from architecture school. The collective enlisted Italian manufacturer Gufram, a firm at the forefront of Italian Radical design, to create a bold red sofa in the shape of plump lips; it was dubbed Marilyn after Ms. Monroe and was an instant sensation when installed at the fitness center.

Studio 65 would follow this with the also iconic Capitello side chair (another Gufram collaboration, now in the permanent collection at The Met), whose reimagining of a decapitated marble classical architectural column in squishy foam was an on-the-nose expression of the group’s pushback to traditional design. It’s a nod they iterated with the Attica coffee table, whose form appears sliced from an oversize column.

Though Studio 65 still operates as an architecture studio under the leadership of Audrito today, the original collective broke up in the late 1970s, making its output from the past decade sought-after fodder for collectors of postmodern, Radical and Italian design.

Find Studio 65 chairs, sofas and other furniture on 1stDibs.