Carlo Scarpa for Gavina

CARLO SCARPA (Venice, 1906 - Japan, 1978) for Gavina.
Set of four chairs, 1974.
Oak wood.
In excellent condition. With slight surface marks in keeping with its age. The lower part has been reinforced to guarantee stability.
Measurements: 94 x 47,5 x 50 cm (x4).
This set of oak dining chairs by Carlo Scarpa is a perfect synthesis between technical rigor and aesthetics. The modernist geometry is softened in its proportions, while the structural details reveal the meticulous mind of its author. The high, almost enveloping backrest is supported by an ebonized crossbar that dialogues with a second tubular element hidden in the inner corner of the frame. In profile, the silhouette reveals a delicately rounded right angle.

Scarpa trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where he graduated in 1926, and early on developed an exceptional sensitivity to materials and light. Fascinated by glass, he began to design furniture in the late 1920s, while he frequented Venetian artistic and intellectual circles, meeting figures such as Giuseppe Ungaretti, Carlo Carrà and Lionello Venturi.
In 1933 he began his collaboration with Venini, a decisive stage that lasted until 1947 and consolidated his mastery of craftsmanship. He participated in the Biennale di Venezia in 1932 and, shortly after, in the Triennale di Milano, placing himself at the center of the Italian artistic and architectural debate.
Although his furniture production was limited and in many cases conceived for specific projects, each piece reflects the same conceptual intensity as his architecture. After his collaboration in the 1960s with Dino Gavina, his name was definitively linked to masterpieces such as the Olivetti showroom in Venice and the Brion Tomb in Tomba Brion.