Sofa by Carlo Enrico Rava

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Sofa by Carlo Enrico Rava

About the Item

Rare and important sofa by Carlo Enrico Rava, in dark-stained walnut with carved lacquered stretchers, Italy, circa 1947. Provenance and documentation available "The function of taste is now quite different from what it was during the period that could be considered the 'era of style.' Today‘s taste opens up every stagnant domain, it prevents us from recognizing ourselves as belonging to a 'specific epoch' and it compels us to adapt and reorganize if we want to avoid the tedium of constantly redefining for ourselves the concept of time and space. Every style and every architecture in this particular instance is a vanished world that is somehow still present, that can now be documented with ever more precision. These worlds are tied to the consciousness of a 'present' that is reduced to a mere abstraction but when they are mastered with serenity and thereby with beauty they influence taste and, I repeat, in spite of critical skepticism, this kind of taste cannot be ignored and it is perfectly capable of giving us true poetry. Such is Rava's position, historical and skeptical at the same time: it is eclectic. It is the expression of a particular esthetic 'knowledge', of a world that he accepts, a world that beauty itself can free from nostalgic repetition but also from the belief in a magical technological tetragram that would be designed to dispense either actual or virtual biological happiness. His world is articulated as we said in a seemingly traditional language that relies on the very 'classical' forms, which we have learned over the course of centuries to consider as metaphors for architecture. Yet, through suggestive modulations and shifts away from the canon and away from the thinking at the origin of these forms we are transported into a serene realm of contemplation of whatever kind of everyday 'civilized' beauty the world has given us in the past, simultaneously denouncing what it is incapable of giving us today. It is nothing less than a way to escape the constraints of time by pursuing simple beauty." Carlo Mollino, Arredamenti di Rava, Gorlich, Milano, 1950, p.2 (preface).

Creator:
Carlo Enrico Rava (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 35.5 in (90.17 cm)Width: 75.5 in (191.77 cm)Depth: 30 in (76.2 cm)Seat Height: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)
Style:
Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Walnut,Lacquered,Stained
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1940-1949
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1947
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Sag Harbor, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: K15091stDibs: LU96841874932