Alessandro Mendini

Grace Design, Dallas, TX, 1986
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Barbara Radice, Elogio del banale, Milan, 1980, front cover
Andrea Branzi, The Hot House: Italian New Wave Design, Cambridge, 1984, p. 123
Albrecht Bangert, Italian Furniture Design:  Ideas Styles Movements, Munich, 1988, pp. 63, 65 and 116
Peter Weib, ed., Alessandro Mendini:  Design and Architecture, Milan, 2001, p. 100 (for a drawing of the model) and p. 101
Giampiero Bosoni, Il Modo Italiano:  Italian Design and Avant-Garde in the 20th Century, exh. cat., The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, 2007, p. 345
Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt eds., Postmodernism:  Style and Subversion, 1970–1990, exh. cat., The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011, p. 41

Overall in excellent original condition. The chair presents with more saturated and vibrant hues than what is presented in the catalogue illustration. There is very little evidence of use to this chair. The chair with minor surface dirt to recessed portions of the design and with a few small and light surface scratches to the frame consistent with gentle handling. . The hand painted surfaces are in excellent condition throughout the frame and the upholstery. The painted scheme of the frame and the upholstery continues on the reverse of the chair. Please contact the department for additional photographs showing the other sides of the chair. A rare opportunity to acquire a pristine condition early example of this modernist icon.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

First executed in 1978 for the exhibition, "Incontri ravvicinati di architettura," ("Close Encounters with Architecture") held in Ferrara, the "Proust" armchair designed by Alessandro Mendini exemplifies the postmodern desire to reinterpret traditional forms through the "reading" of designed objects laden with cultural signifiers.  This chair demonstrates tensions between the past and present not only in its name, but also through its pseudo-nineteenth-century form and Impressionistic decorative upholstery reminiscent of pointillist painting.  Mendini's engagement with the self-reflexive relationship between postmodernism and kitsch/mass culture is highlighted especially by the interplay of memory and temporality famously explored in Marcel Proust's 1913 Remembrances of Things Past, a significant source of inspiration for the design.  The present lot is an early example of the original armchairs produced by Studio Alchimia with hand-painted canvas upholstery.  It was purchased in 1986 by Grace Design in Dallas, one of the first galleries in the United States to represent Mendini's now iconic design.