Italian modern daybed sofa Locus Solus by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova, 1970s
View Similar Items
Italian modern daybed sofa Locus Solus by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova, 1970s
About the Item
- Creator:Gae Aulenti (Designer),Poltronova (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 23.23 in (59 cm)Width: 78.75 in (200 cm)Depth: 33.08 in (84 cm)Seat Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)
- Style:Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1970s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Good condition, it has scattered signs of age and patina on the metal.
- Seller Location:MIlano, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4860236170182
Gae Aulenti
The Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti will forever be best remembered for her work with museums, in particular her 1980–86 renovation of a Beaux Arts Paris train station to create the galleries of the Musée d’Orsay. Aulenti — whose first name, short for Gaetana, is pronounced “guy” — should also be recalled for her tough intellectual spirit and for working steadily when few women found successful architectural careers in postwar Italy.
After she graduated from the Milan Polytechic in 1954, Aulenti opened an architectural office. She also joined the staff of the progressive architectural magazine Casabella, whose editorial line was that the establishment, orthodox modernism of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, had outlived it usefulness. When their movement for fresh approaches to architecture and design received a sympathetic hearing, Aulenti found patrons — most prominently Gianni Agnelli, of Fiat, who later employed her to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice for use as an arts exhibition space.
Commissions for showrooms and other corporate spaces brought Aulenti to furniture design. She felt that furniture should never dominate a room. Her chairs and sofas — low-slung, with rounded enameled metal frames and ample seats — and tables, particularly her 1972 marble Jumbo coffee table for Knoll, project solidity and sturdiness. In lighting design, however, Aulenti is bravura.
Each work has a marvelous sculptural presence. Pieces such as her Pipistrello table lamp and Quadrifoglio pendant are a perfect marriage of organically shaped glass and high-tech fixtures. Others have a futuristic elegance — and some even have a touch of personality. Aulenti’s Pileino and La Ruspa table lamps each look almost like little robots. Her lighting pieces are an artful grace note in the career of a woman who believed in strength.
Find vintage Gae Aulenti armchairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Poltronova
Poltronova is known for embracing the creativity that opposites can introduce to a space. Its radical modernist furniture and lighting fixtures are simultaneously grounded in classic aesthetics and inspired by what were then new and provocative artistic movements in mid-century Italy, when the company was founded. This tension resulted in unique and extraordinary pieces at the manufacturer, from eccentric, glove-shaped armchairs to striking dining tables that feature a mix of materials and textures.
Italian designer Sergio Cammilli founded Poltronova in Tuscany in 1957. That same year, it 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 collaborations 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. Collectives associated with the 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, Poltronova 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 represented the company and helped introduce it to the American market.
In 2005, Poltronova established the Centro Studi Poltronova to recreate some of the company's iconic furniture. The brand has also recently collaborated with English architect Nigel Coates, who worked with a Poltronova master craftsman in Italy to design a series of limited-edition furniture in 2011, including the Domo chair.
On 1stDibs, find vintage Poltronova tables, seating, storage cabinets and more.
- Italian modern daybed sofa Locus Solus by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova, 1970sBy Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaLocated in MIlano, ITItalian modern daybed sofa Locus Solus by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova, 1970s Daybed mod. Locus Solus with patina chromed metal structure. The structure is entirely in tubular, which i...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsMetal
- Italian mid-century Orange Footstools Locus Solus Gae Aulenti Poltronova, 1960sBy Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaLocated in MIlano, ITBeautiful and very rare Italian mid-century Orange Footstools Locus Solus by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova, 1960s Pair of footrests from the se...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Footstools
MaterialsMetal
$2,728 Sale Price / set20% Off - Italian Mid-Century Yellow Footstool Locus Solus Gae Aulenti Poltronova, 1960sBy Poltronova, Gae AulentiLocated in MIlano, ITItalian mid-century yellow footstool Locus Solus by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova, 1960s Footrest from the series Locus Solus in yellow painted...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Footstools
MaterialsMetal
$1,408 Sale Price20% Off - Italian space age Brown Floor lamp Oracolo by Gae Aulenti for Artemide, 1970sBy Gae Aulenti, ArtemideLocated in MIlano, ITItalian space age Brown Floor lamp Oracolo by Gae Aulenti for Artemide, 1970s Floor lamp mod. Oracolo with spherical opaline glass diffuser. The cylindrical structure is in brown lac...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal, Steel
- Italian Modern Saratoga Living Room Set, M. and L. Vignelli for Poltronova 1980sBy Poltronova, Massimo and Lella VignelliLocated in MIlano, ITItalian post modern black lacquered wood and brown leather Saratoga living room set by Massimo and Lella Vignelli for Poltronova, 1980s Living room in black lacquered wood and brown leather cushions, Saratoga model, composed of a three-seater sofa, a two-seater sofa, an armchair, a luminous container bar table, a coffee table at armrest height and a half-height coffee table central. Project by Massimo and Lella Vignelli for Poltronova, around 1980. Good condition, cushions in vintage condition but with good padding. A small white scratch is present on the three-seater sofa, another small on the bar table. Three-seater sofa measures in cm 210 x 90 x 61 H and seat height 40 cm Two seater sofa measures in cm 149 x 90 x 61 H Armchair measures in cm 90 x 89 x 61 H Measures high coffee table 90...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Living Room Sets
MaterialsLeather, Wood
- Italian modern red sofa Bocca by Studio 65 for Gufram, 1970sBy Gufram FurnitureLocated in MIlano, ITItalian modern red sofa Bocca by Studio 65 for Gufram, 1970s Bocca model sofa, in fact it is in the shape of giant lips, padded with cold expanded polyurethane with differentiated lo...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Modern Sofas
MaterialsFabric
- Gae Aulenti Locus Solus daybed for Poltronova, Italy 1964By Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaLocated in London, GBGae Aulenti (1927-2012) was a renowned Italian architect, famous for key cultural landmarks – the Musée d’Orsay (1980–86), the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the restoration of Palazzo Grassi in Venice (1985–86). Often straying from architecture into furniture, exhibitions, graphic and interiors, her design ethos is best understood in her own words: “Advice to whoever asks me how to make a home is to not have anything, just a few shelves for books, some pillows to sit on… to take a stand against the ephemeral, against passing trends [and] return to lasting values.” With the Locus Solus daybed...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Daybeds
MaterialsChrome
- Locus Solus daybed by Gae Aulenti for Poltronova 60s, 70sBy Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaLocated in Padova, ITGae Aulenti, pseudonym of Gaetana Emilia Aulenti (Palazzolo dello Stella, 4 December 1927 – Milan, 31 October 2012), was an Italian designer and architect, particularly dedicated to ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
MaterialsSteel
- Gae Aulenti for Poltronova 'Locus Solus' Daybed in Red SteelBy Poltronova, Gae AulentiLocated in Waalwijk, NLGae Aulenti for Poltronova Production, daybed model 'Locus Solus', red laquered steel, Italy, 1964 This daybed by Gae Aulenti is part of the 'Locus Solus' series created in 1964. T...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
MaterialsSteel
- Gae Aulenti for Poltronova 'Locus Solus' Daybed in Chrome-Plated SteelBy Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaLocated in Waalwijk, NLGae Aulenti for Poltronova Production, daybed model 'Locus Solus', chrome-plated steel, Larsen fabric, Italy, 1964 This daybed by Gae Aulenti is part of the 'Locus Solus' series cr...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Locus Solus, Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaBy Gae AulentiLocated in Milano, LombardiaIl “Locus Solus” è stato concepito negli anni 60 e rappresenta un’icona del design moderno italiano. Caratterizzata da linee pulite e geometriche, la poltrona è stata realizzata con ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Space Age Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Gae Aulenti for Poltronova 'Stringa' SofaBy Gae Aulenti, PoltronovaLocated in Waalwijk, NLGae Aulenti for Poltranova, sofa model 'Stringa', leather, chromed metal, blue fabric upholstery, Italy, 1962 'Stringa' sofa designed by Gae Aulenti for Poltranova in 1962. A tubula...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsMetal, Chrome