Iconic mid-century designs to feature in Adam’s sale

It’s that magical moment when the solution to a problem, or a new way of doing something, suddenly appears.

And many of these eureka moments happen while doing something very ordinary.

As reported in the Washington Post, in a 2019 study, When Muses Strike: Creative Ideas of Physicists and Writers Routinely Occur during Mind Wandering, it discovered that twenty per cent of these “Aha” moments involved people doing mundane things, like washing dishes or having a shower. Participants said these ideas they had away from their jobs were just as creative as the ones they had at work.

In Adam’s forthcoming timed Mid-Century Modern sale, which is now open online and ending on May 9th, one such eureka moment led to the creation of Lot 37, known as the Up5 & Up6 or “Donna” chair.

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Back in 1968, while Italian designer Gaetano Pesce was taking a shower, he had a design brainwave: “When I pressed the sponge, it shrank and when I released it, it returned to its original volume,” he recalled, leading the designer to wonder if a chair would behave the same way.

At his Paris atelier, Pesce began experimenting with vacuum packing material of the day – polyurethane – and the Up5 and Up6 chair and footrest were born. He said its bulbous shape was inspired by fertility goddesses and its ball-shaped foot rest (some of which had chains) was a commentary on women as prisoners in the domestic sphere.

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Pesce produced an eight metre tall version of this chair for Milan Design Week in 2019 in an effort to criticise patriarchy but it backfired, as feminist group Non Una Di Meno protested in front of the work saying it actually perpetuates violence against women. Another activist threw red varnish on the seat to resemble menstruation and to remind the designer that he was essentially referring to a woman as a piece of furniture.

Pesce, the Italian architect who simultaneously worked as an urban planner and industrial designer, gained international recognition for furniture, shoes and jewellery and the Up5 and Up6 became an iconic piece of furniture – as it was easy to move and of contemporary design. Lot 37, the Gaetano Pesce chair for B&B Italia with maker’s stamp, is in striking red and white stripes and is expected to fetch between €4,000 and €6,000.

A sculptural design is found in Lot 9, “a rare pair of D-tech armchairs” by Jean-Louis Godivier, the French designer and architect who was influenced by Le Corbusier. Models for these chairs were first exhibited at the 1986 Design Expo at the Pompidou Centre in Paris (€2,000-€3,000).

As one would expect, Danish designers feature strongly in the sale and two pieces by Niels Otto Møller – considered by many to be Denmark’s greatest dining chair designer – are listed. Lot 77, a set of rosewood “Model 78″ chairs (€2,000-€4,000) and Lot 23, which is a set of eight “Model 80″ chairs (€4,000-€6,000).

Of interest are four pieces by Irish designer Eileen Gray. A model E1027 side table, produced by Classicon (Lot 234, €800-€1,200), is evocative of her house at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the south of France, where she wanted a table that could be used “over her knees” while sitting or as an occasional bedside table. The adjustable piece in polished chrome has been part of the permanent collection of MoMA in New York since 1977.

A N71 desk lamp (Lot 185, €600-€800) is attributed to Eileen Gray, as is a black melamine storage cabinet (Lot 141, €3,000-€5,000), while her Non-Conformist armchair (Lot 116), in white leather and chrome, is expected to attain between €2,500-€3,500.

She once pragmatically said of the armchair: “An armrest was omitted in order to leave the body more freedom in movement and to allow it to bend forward or to turn to the other side unrestricted.”

In terms of art, the sale has some large scale contemporary works, including John Boyd’s striking Embolium II (Lot 49, €15,000-€25,000). Executed in 2010, and one of four similarly sized works measuring 120 x 180cm, it is the largest of Boyd’s paintings to feature at auction, according to catalogue notes.

Also listed is Robert Ballagh’s portrait (€6,000-€8,000) of Brian O’Doherty, who died last year. The Irish polymath became a leading figure in the New York art scene after studying medicine in UCD.

An art critic for the New York Times, he was said to have championed emerging artists and helped establish names like Mark Rothko and Edward Hopper. In 1972, he took Patrick Ireland as a pseudonym – a name he chose in recognition of the Bloody Sunday massacre. At the time, he stated that he would use his adopted pen-name until the British military left Northern Ireland but finally interred Patrick Ireland in 2008, when, at a ceremony at IMMA in Kilmainham, pallbearers carried an effigy of Patrick Ireland to a grave in the museums’ garden. He also took to writing books and his second novel, the Deposition of Father McGreevy, was short listed for the 2000 Booker Prize.

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