Design by ANTONI GAUDÃ (Reus or Riudoms, Tarragona, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926).
Calvet" armchair.
Oak wood.
BD edition. Production ca.1985.
Wear and tear. Some damage to the wood of the seat.
Model exhibited in "Objects of Desire. Surrealism and design, 1924-2020", La Caixa.
Measurements: 96 x 65 x 60 cm.
The "Calvet" chair is an original design by Gaudí from 1902, re-edited by BD and produced by hand, with the same original materials and all the richness of detail with which the originals were made in their day. It is a chair with curved, fluid, natural and soft lines, with a small backrest reminiscent of the central balconies on the back façade of the Casa Calvet. It is a simple, comfortable piece of furniture intended to form part of the modernist office of the house. The Casa Calvet on Carrer Casp in Barcelona was the first housing project built by the Catalan architect, which was recognised by Barcelona City Council with the prize for the best building of 1900. Two years later, in 1902, Gaudí designed the oak furniture for the offices on the ground floor. They were originally manufactured by the firm Casa y Bardés and are now kept in the Gaudí Museum in Park Güell.
The greatest representative of Catalan and, therefore, Spanish modernism, Gaudí is one of the most outstanding architects and decorators in European history. He studied architecture at the Llotja School and the Barcelona School of Architecture, where he graduated in 1878. With his first major commission, the Casa Vicens, he began to make a name for himself and to attract increasingly important commissions. In 1878, he exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Paris a display cabinet made for the Comella glove shop. This piece, which was both modernist in design and functional, impressed the industrialist Eusebi Güell, a key figure in Gaudí's artistic biography from then on. In fact, Güell was not only Gaudí's great friend, but also his main patron, and commissioned some of his most outstanding works, such as the Parc Güell. In 1883 he accepted the commission to continue the work on the Sagrada Família; Gaudí completely modified the initial project, and this building became his masterpiece, on which he worked until the day he died. This project was followed by other important commissions, such as the episcopal palace of Astorga, the Batlló and Milá houses and the restoration of the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca. In 1910 the first exhibition dedicated to Gaudí was held at the Grand Palais in Paris. After his death, important retrospectives of the architect were held, including the one at MoMA in New York, his first major international exhibition, which took place in 1957. Gaudí's designs for furniture and decorative arts can now be admired at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the MOMA in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the National Art Museum of Catalonia, as well as at his House-Museum in Park Güell.