Enzo Mari - Moss New York Tuesday, October 16, 2012 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from Cassina, Italy, 1991

  • Literature

    François Burkhardt, Juli Capella and Francesca Picchi, Why write a book on Enzo Mari, Milan, 1997, p. 68

  • Catalogue Essay

    One of our personal treasures, which Franklin and I displayed at home on a library shelf amidst all our books on design, was this naive-looking, hand-cut aluminum ‘research project’, called ‘Quattro Spirali’, by industrial designer Enzo Mari for Danese. It’s a very rare, early example of this Italian designer’s lifelong study of the methodology of design. Created as a multiple, it was offered at the time in a signed, limited edition of 50 pieces, of which this piece is 45. An esoteric object - created for Danese in just its second year of operation by a youthful 26 year old Mari - with aluminum spirals cut from the flat sheet and progressively unwinding deeper and deeper into the void, addressing possibilities and perceptions afforded in two dimensions versus three dimensions, as well as issues of perspective. To me, this object is a souvenir of Mari’s early development, which was exercised through these kinds of intellectual puzzles. Deceptively haunting, it has always suggested to me a gesture similar to the slashed canvases of Lucio Fontana.

COLLECTION OF MURRAY MOSS AND FRANKLIN GETCHELL

38

‘Quattro Spirali’

1958
Cut sheet aluminum.
15 3/8 x 15 5/8 x 12 in (39.1 x 39.7 x 30.5 cm)
Produced by Danese, Italy. Number 45 from the edition of 50. Reverse with metal label ‘ENZO MARI/QUATTRO SPIRALI/1958-1968/tiratura limitata/a cinquanta esemplari/essemplare numero 45/EDIZIONI DANESE MILANO’.

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Moss

16 October 2012
New York