German Car Zone

Rob, this is for you; a chair(s) made of bycicle parts...:






Found it on one Croatian web site and thought that you, object freak , will find it interesting...

Thanks for posting Tyc ....they are clever.

Since Tyc posted that bicycle chair, I thought about "ready-made" furniture objects.

The term "ready-made or readymade" was first used by the French Artist Marcel Duchamp in the early years of the twentieth century -- he was referring to art made form "found objects" -- like junk.

Picasso also experimented with found objects -- turning old junk into sculptures.

Pablo Picasso, Bulls head, 1943


Pablo Picasso, Baboon and Young, 1955 -- using a toy car for the head.


There are some famous examples of this type of concept in design.

The Italian Castiglioni brothers created some very well known objects made from "found" components.

Mezzadro stool from 1957. It uses a mass-produced, off-the-shelf tractor seat.


Toio floor lamp from 1962 -- it was one of the first domestic halogen lights. It uses a car headlight as an up-light and some components from a fishing rod.


Sella stool from 1957 - using bicycle seat.


This is a very widely copied design by Gae Aulenti -- a High-tech design classic from 1980.

Tavolo con route, a sheet of glass with four industrial casters attached via exposed bolts.

Italian Design.

Italy produced many great designers in the twentieth century ...but it wasn't until the mid-1960s that Milano became the center of the international design world ....in the late 1980s, Milan also became the fashion capital of the world.

Design in Italy is not just about image and appearance -- it is a highly academic subject and there are many philosophers and intellectuals who write on the subject of design.

Milan has attracted many of the world's most talented designers over the years ....the the biggest names in architecture and industrial design have, either trained in Italy or worked with Italian manufacturers.

One cannot start a discussion about the history of Italian design without mentioning Gio Ponti, the godfather of Italian Design. Ponti was such a major force on Italian design, the world would not look the same today, if he had not been alive.

In the 1920s, Ponti embraced the Art Deco style ...but infused it with references to historical Italian architecture and culture. His was always a very eclectic style ...never pure or self-consciously obsessed with ideology ... like the German design of that time.

Inspired by Classicism and the Renaissance ..but with a 20th century style, this ceramic object is from the 1920s.


After WW2, Italy had to rebuild its economy ....they started by producing furniture objects made from cheap materials ...like plywood. The Italian style was always more expressive and emotional than the Scandinavian or German design.

Gio Ponto's "Superleggera" chair from 1951 ..and an interior by Ponti.


A new Design Style started to emerge in the 1950s -- much of the Italian design of this time could be seen as being quite kitsch -- very artistic and decorative, but not at all in line with Bauhaus principles of form and function.
Some might call it "bad taste" design ....and to be fair, some of it is quite tacky and gimmicky ...but it was designed with artistic flair and a love for life and beauty.

Designers like Piero Fornasetti and Carlo Mollino are widely collected today, they were two of the most original designers of the twentieth century. Their objects are extremely decorative and expressive -- issues of "good taste" need not apply here.

Fornasetti's furniture and objects are very famous and still in production -- he has become a cult figure for some people. His, is not a style that I personally find appealing, but he was an extraordinary man nonetheless.



Carlo Mollino's designs often have very sexually suggestive undertones -- he was kind of a mad genius who designed everything from buildings to lingerie .....his style is organic, some might call it anthropomorphic, zoomorphic ...or even erotic. Mollino was a very eccentric man who was widely known to be very difficult to work with ... projects he was involved with often resulted in lawsuits ....however, he was a brilliant designer.




Other Italian designers also woking at this time were Carlo Graffi and Marco Zanuso.

Furniture by Carlo Graffi.


Marco Zanuso. The chair on the right is his "Lady" chair, which was very famous and widely imitated in the 1950s.

Love the egg chair.
The car inspired are too much, exceptp for the Cadillac Chaise Longue, witch I like.


As for soviet/communist architecture, it is triumphlist, and it's there to give a message loud and clear, and almost religiously.

IMO, it takes inspiration from ancient triumphalist architecture (egyptian, mesopotamian, post classic/hellenistic greek and roman (from Augustus on)), byzantine, and even 17th century french architecture (of Louis the XIV)).

It's has this obsesion for the big, and its made to worship the leader(s), ideology and/or ruling "class", while pretending to be a shrine to the power of the people.


Also, what do you think of the works of one of my greatest coutryman Constantin Brancusi ?!

I see some Greek influence in some of the objects but that isn't suprising since Greece was a part of the roman empire. Not only that but in the past the greeks were leaders in architecture.

That was not my point about the soviet architecture/greek influence.

Don't comfuse archaic greek, with classic greek and heelenistic greek arhitecture/vision.

Greeks from the classical period, 5th century BC, would have rejected such architecture.

After the 5th cetury BC, the greeks abandoned the classical ideals and influenced by orient (especially beacuse of Alexander the Great) switched to a grandiouse, triumphalist even architecture.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnas, the temple of Artemis, the Statue of Helios, are just such example, along with the palaces of the hellenist monarchs.

Roman Empire style was rather influenced by the hellenistic (period; IV to I century B.C.) not classical (period; Vth century B.C.) greek arhictecture/style.

The grandiose, triumphalist hellenistic and imperial roman architecture was not what the greek from classical period had in mind.

I've initially stated hellenistic period influence, not classical.

Sure Imhotep Evil ...you are correct.

I guess we should make a distinction between the Classical period and Classical archetypes: the Column, the Arch, the Pediment, the dome, port window (circular window), square window (divided into quarters with a cross), etc. ..as we understand "Classicism" from a postmodern perspective.

In the late twentieth century, one of the really great architects who used Classicist archetypes in his buildings was the Italian Aldo Rossi. Sadly, Rossi was killed in a car accident in 1997, but his buildings have been tremendously influential around the world.

Aldo Rossi is one of my favourite architects.

rob, thank u for all the info and pictures, i really admire/enjoy your knowledge of art and your post. please keep it upp!!!!