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Property from a Private Collection, Texas

4

Javier Mariscal

Pair of "Duplex" stools

designed 1980, manufactured 1983-2003
Painted steel, vinyl upholstery, rubber.
33 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 18 in. (85.1 x 47 x 45.7 cm)
Manufactured by Bd Ediciones de Diseño, Barcelona, Spain.
A straight red line, a curved blue line, and an undulating yellow line precariously converge to form this “chair for the restless,” as the Spanish designer Javier Mariscal calls it. Mariscal designed the stool for Bar Duplex—where the stools get their name—in Valencia in 1980, and two years later, Bb Ediciones de Diseño put the stools into production. The original interior that they appeared in has become one of Mariscal’s best known interiors, noted for its irreverent and colorful design which is also reflected in the present stools. Mariscal has described the cartoonish and playful qualities of the stools, saying, “It isn't a stool for fat old men who have to sit there all day in comfort. It's for young people who are nervous, as you are when you want to chat someone up. It's ironic. It's an object that's been in a fight, or on the booze.” These very qualities are why the stools are now symbols of not only the “new Spanish design” movement of the 1980s, but also, more broadly, symbols of a postmodern sensibility.

Javier Mariscal

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