TRACCIA

Meret Oppenheim 1939/1972

In 1971, Dino Gavino launched  what he called “l’opera d’arte funzionale”, or functional artworks, in so doing inaugurating a new approach of furnishing where surreal objects were adapted for everyday use. This led to the creation of the Ultramobile collection. These pieces, that went beyond (ultra) furniture (mobile) engaged the imagination, complementing rational intelligence with a sense of wonder, where geometry interacted with fantasy. One of these pieces was the low table that the Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim designed in 1929 for Leo Castelli’s avant-garde gallery, dubbing it the “Bird Leg Table”, for fairly obvious reasons. The slim-line legs, and the taloned feet in polished cast bronze pay homage to the claw-foot furniture of the past. In the 1970s, the Simon International company produced a limited edition in a smaller size. This has now been re-released by Cassina, fully respecting the original design.