Gabriella Crespi ‘Cubo Magico’ Coffee Table in Brass

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Gabriella Crespi ‘Cubo Magico’ Coffee Table in Brass

About the Item

Gabriella Crespi, 'Cubo Magico' coffee table, brass, Italy, 1970. The ‘Cubo Magico’ was designed by Gabriella Crespi as part of the 'Plurimi’ series. This line got off the ground in the early 1970s and obtained its name ‘Plurimi’ as tribute to her friend Emilio Vedova, a Venetian painter known for his Abstract Expressionist paintings. The designs are characterized by functional objects with a metamorphic soul that embraced both functionality and poetical compositions. Her play on volumes and forms allowed her to create pieces that fulfilled practical needs, while still being eccentric and stylish. The constructions are based on movement and concealment facilitating unexpected alterations and variety of uses, like a magic box. The ‘Cubo Magico’ embodies a cubic shaped design with four rectangular extension leaves, each positioned on a different height, that can be pulled out from either side of the furniture’s main corpus. The surface of the coffee table is finished with brass that holds a beautiful reflective quality, onto which the light reflects in a sophisticated manner. The presence of extendable leaves and casters underneath make this a versatile and mobile coffee table that is designed according to a refined and streamlined principle that applies to this series. The piece is stamped with her signature stating ‘Gabriella Crespi, BREV, 247’. Gabriella Crespi was born in Milan on 17 February 1922 and grew up in an energetic and cultivated family environment. Her father Gabriele Pellini was an engineer working in an industrial firm while her mother Emma Caimi Pellini designed jewels for the Parisian Haute-Couture between 1940’s and 50’s. Crespi graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan, where she developed pragmatic techniques. She acquired skill in mastering volumes, construction, and ergonomics, while she also loved sculpting and drawing. Her career took off in 1964 when she opened her first showroom in Rome at Palazzo Cenci, where she presented her contemporary collections. Crespi did not design objects for the mass-industry. On the contrary, her oeuvre embodied signed and numbered pieces in limited editions for exclusive clients. The designer created interiors for clients that included the Princess of Monaco, the Shah of Iran, the King of Saudi Arabia and other affluent figures in Europe. She experimented with rare and expensive materials and opted for a combination of exotic materials (such as bamboo, wood, and rattan) and rigor materials (like polished brass) to create furniture that was “full of life”. For her, the juxtaposition of these materials “unites strength and flexibility.” She drew inspiration from nature in which she saw a symbolic value. “My creations are meant to bring mankind closer to the universe”, stated Crespi. At the beginning of her design journey, she took the universe, the movement of celestial bodies, at the center of her inventions. Her first theme regarding the planet ‘Moon’ Crespi’s furniture objects demonstrated her devotion for the cosmos. The co-occurrence of steel and brass reminded her of the stars in the sky, at night. From 1985 onwards, Crespi decided to take part in a spiritual quest for 25 years and took distance from her profession as designer. She would spend the next two decades of her life in a Himalayan retreat. The multitalented designer and artist eventually died in 2017 in Milan.

Creator:
Gabriella Crespi (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 18.51 in (47 cm)Width: 23.63 in (60 cm)Depth: 23.63 in (60 cm)
Style:
Post-Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1970-1979
Date of Manufacture:
1970
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Every item Morentz offers is checked by our team of 30 craftsmen in our in-house workshop. Special restoration or reupholstery requests can be done. We guarantee a very high-quality standard, ask our design specialists for detailed information.
Seller Location:
Waalwijk, NL
Reference Number:
Seller: 501115361stDibs: LU933131371732

Shop All Gabriella Crespi

Gabriella Crespi

Bronze discs that open up like clamshells for storage and fold back in to become side tables. Sleek cubes barely suspended off the ground that transform into full-size dining tables. Clean-lined boxes that contain multilevel shelving. Looking at the work of Italian designer Gabriella Crespi, born in 1922 and who still produced furniture in her Milan studio until her death in 2017, it’s hard to believe that many of these highly functional pieces — modernist Rubik’s Cubes of materials, colors and ergonomics — were created decades ago.

Among her best-known creations, the bronze Ellisse table, 1976, and her bronze-and-lacquer Yang-Yin bar, 1979, encapsulate a designer who had a strong dualism in her vision, mixing humble and precious materials, for instance, or creating geometric shapes that were softened by sensual surfaces. Crespi began studying architecture in 1944 at the Politecnico, in Milan, where she was among just a handful of women, and became profoundly influenced by the work of Charles-Édouard "Le Corbusier" Jeanneret and Frank Lloyd Wright. After getting married and having children, she launched her own collections, from jewelry to furniture, and soon gained a loyal following, with design houses such as Maison Dior snapping pieces up for their own lines.

She began work on her most iconic collection, Plurimi, in the late 1960s, and the series — including her Dama table, which plays on the themes of volume, light and adaptability that Crespi has explored throughout her career — flourished through the 1970s and early ’80s. Then there is her famed Z desk, from a mid-1970s series, which manages to be both stylish and humorous, looking like it’s ready to leap off the floor at any moment. Well-born and beautiful, Crespi garnered attention among the jet set. She was a muse to Valentino, and her pieces appeared in the homes of Princess Grace of Monaco, the Shah of Iran and Greek shipping magnate George Livanos.

In 1987, with her children now adults, the designer surprised everyone when she moved to the foot of the Indian Himalayas to study with the guru Sri Muniraj. This turned into a 20-year self-imposed exile that, if anything, made her pieces even more sought-after by collectors.