MAgritta vintage Chair by Roberto Sebastian Matta for Studio Simon Gavina, 2000

"Magritta" chair designed by Sebastian Matta (1911-2002) and produced by Studio Simon Gavina, the Studio founded by Dino Gavina, for the Ultramobile series in 1971. Roberto Matta designed this chair as a tribute to his friend and fellow surrealist painter René Magritte. The name MAgriTTA is a combination of the names Magritte and Matta. The apple and black bowler hat are two of Magritte’s trademarks, derived from his famous 1946 self-portrait “The Son of Man”. In the painting, Magritte shows herself with a bowler hat and an apple. The surreal aspect is a green apple floating in the air hiding its face. Matta playfully adapted the painting by making a fiberglass bowler hat, upside down, with a green foam apple inside it. When sat on, the foam of the apple would have compressed into the hat. The condition of this MAgriTTA chair is still good; the green fabris has egal discoloration because of the sun and the apple stalk has been replaced. Material: fiberglass shell with black fabric, green fabric and polyurethane foam. Dimensions: h x w x d 60 x 87 x 92 cm. Source: Dino Gavina catalogue 1950-1992, page 85.