Fantasy Forms

By: Dana Micucci

June 2007

Genius. Iconoclast. Visionary. Magician. These words have been used to describe the inimitable

This glass and oak trestle table, 1949, reached a record price for 20th-century furniture: $3.8 million.

Carlo Mollino (1905–73), interior designer, architect, automobile designer, aviator, set designer, ski instructor and photographer. This modern Renaissance man’s biomorphic, Surrealist-inspired furniture is among the rarest and most sought-after in the heated, ever-growing market for modern design.

In 2005, an exquisite 1949 glass and oak trestle table by Mollino sold for $3.8 million at Christie’s, setting an auction record for a piece of 20th-century furniture. (The table is on display in the traveling exhibition “Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design,” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum through July 22.)

A recent retrospective of Mollino’s work at the GAM–Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in his native city of Turin, Italy, and the publication of a new monograph, The Furniture of Carlo Mollino, Complete Works, have further established him as one of the most significant designers of the postwar period.

“Collectors are attracted to the complexity, individuality and eroticism of Mollino’s designs,” says Brian Kish, a New York–based curator and dealer of 20th-century Italian design. “He pushed the boundaries of modern design by emphasizing its hidden sculptural tendencies.

His expressive Surrealist vision, rooted in subconscious impulses and desires, ran counter to the analytical, minimalist Italian Rationalist and Bauhaus designs that prevailed during his time. In this sense, he was radical, even subversive, and his influence can be seen today in the free-flowing forms of such contemporary architects and designers as Ron Arad, Marc Newson and Zaha Hadid.” Indeed, to behold one of Mollino’s designs is to enter a realm infused with inspiration—French

Dining room at Museo Casa Mollino, Torino, Italy.

Surrealism, of course, but also nature and the human body, Egyptian antiquities, classical and Baroque architecture, Art Nouveau, Italian Futurism, mythology, alchemy and the occult. Mollino’s organic sculpted-wood and bent- plywood furniture, in his updated Turinese Baroque style, can evoke at one moment a tree branch or animal horn or skin, and in the next a skeletal vertebra or the sensual contours of the female form. Whether a chair, table, desk, bed, lamp or coat hanger, Mollino’s dazzling designs appear to come alive in an exuberant synthesis of form and function. Lending credence to his declaration, “Everything is permissible as long as it is fantastic,” these singular creations merge the phantasmagoric playfulness of Antoni Gaudí with the sleight-of-hand showmanship of Man Ray. Among his most celebrated designs are the “Gaudí chair,” made of shaped solid maple, and Arabesque tables with undulating plywood bases and biomorphic glass tops.

“Mollino was a master of duality who championed the avant-garde yet did not completely break with the past,” says Fulvio Ferrari, an Italian design scholar, founder of the Museo Casa Mollino (Mollino House Museum) in Turin and author, along with his son, Napoleone, of The Furniture of Carlo Mollino, Complete Works. “Like the great Art Deco and Viennese designers who came before him, he integrated both modern and classical design elements into complete environments for an elite clientele. Whereas many mid-century designers worked for large manufacturers who mass-produced their designs, most of Mollino’s furnishings are site-specific, one-off pieces created for specially commissioned interiors, which adds to their allure.”

Mollino’s eclectic, unifying vision is evident in the Museo Casa Mollino, a 19th-century apartment that he renovated and furnished for himself in the mid-1960s and which is now open to the public. Here, a Louis XV–style fireplace and classical marble-column dining table coexist with fiberglass Tulip chairs by Eero Saarinen and modern furnishings by Mollino and other Italian designers. Though the home bears Mollino’s theatrical stamp, it is nevertheless more understated than many of the private and public commissions he completed around Turin, notably the Devalle House (1939–40), the Minola House (1944–46), the Orengo House (1949–50) and the Lutrario Ballroom (1959–60). Displaying Mollino’s love of bold colors; sumptuous materials such as richly grained hardwoods, animal hides and velvet drapes and upholstery; and reflective surfaces including gilding, mirrors and polished metal, these fantastical interiors could have tumbled out of a Fellini film.

Mollino’s eccentric flamboyance was balanced by a sophisticated understanding of technology and consummate engineering skills. (He was renowned for being able to draw with both hands simultaneously.) After graduating from the University of Turin School of Architecture in 1931, he worked briefly for his father, Eugenio, one of the city’s most prominent engineers. Rossella Colombari, a Milan-based dealer specializing in modern Italian design, recalls her antiques dealer– father’s friendship with Mollino: “He was a high-energy person, nervous, with a short attention span. And he liked to study the baroque furniture in my father’s Turin gallery.” In recent years, Mollino’s designs have created a stir among collectors. Most in demand are the

“Gaudí chair,” maple, 1949.

custom furnishings that Mollino created for private interiors from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, which are considered outstanding examples of his expressive use of materials. “But because these designs were made as unique or limited-edition pieces, they are extremely rare,” says Simon Andrews, director of 20th-century decorative arts at Christie’s South Kensington. “Most are in museums and private collections. And when they do come up, collectors will pay a premium.”

Though Mollino’s most significant designs sell in the six figures, you can still buy his original furnishings—typically the less complex, larger-edition pieces created for public commissions—for less than $50,000, according to Richard Wright of Chicago’s wright auction house. In December 2005, wright sold a set of eight enameled metal, Italian walnut and vinyl dining chairs from Turin’s Lutrario Ballroom for $30,000. A velvet upholstered sycamore chair, circa 1952, sold for $38,400 at Christie’s in December 2006. Mollino’s creations, however, often spark competitive bidding that drives prices way over estimates. For example, a circa-1950 maple-and-glass coffee table, estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, brought $156,000 at wright in May 2006. Other auction highlights have included a dining suite from the Pavia Restaurant in Cervinia, circa 1954, that fetched $198,000 at Phillips de Pury & Company in December 2005, and a brass and resin-flex upholstered chair, 1950, that sold for $102,000 at Christie’s in May 2005.

A few of Mollino’s famous designs, including the $3.8 million trestle table, have been reissued by the Italian company Zanotta for several thousand dollars and are available at design retailers nationwide, including DDC Domus Design Collection in New York, Miami’s Luminaire and Modern Living in Los Angeles.

Not surprisingly, the record price achieved two years ago for the trestle table has contributed to a renewed interest in this esoteric designer. Dealers say his prices have more than doubled since then. “There always will be a great demand for Mollino’s designs,” says New York dealer Cristina Grajales, who purchased the table on behalf of New York collector Thomas Kaplan. “The breathtaking beauty and technical intricacy of his work are incomparable. He was a complete visionary, and his designs are as fresh and original today as they were in his time. Just looking at them gives me goose bumps.”

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Art & Antiques New York correspondent Dana Micucci is the author of several books on art, antiques and collecting, including Best Bids: The Insider’s Guide to Buying at Auction, Collector’s Journal and Artists in Residence: A Guide to the Homes and Studios of Eight 19th-Century Painters In and Around Paris.FOR MORE INFORMATION

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►Brian Kish
New York. 212.925.7850.
www.briankish.com

►Christie’s
New York, 212.492.5485;
London, 011.44.207.839.9060.
www.christies.com

►Cristina Grajales
New York. 212.219.9941.
www.cristinagrajalesinc.com

►Galleria Rossella Colombari
Milan, Italy. 011.39.02.2900.1189.
galleria.colombari@libero.it

►Museo Casa Mollino
Turin, Italy. 011.39.01.1812.9868.

►Phillips de Pury & Company
New York. 212.940.1200.
www.phillipsdepury.com

►R 20th Century
New York. 212.343.7979.
www.r20thcentury.com

►Sotheby’s
New York 212.606.7000;
London, 011.44.207.293.5555.
www.sothebys.com

►wright
Chicago. 312.563.0020.
www.wright20.com

►The Furniture of Carlo Mollino, Complete Works
by Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari
(Phaidon Press, London and New York, 2006).