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

"Magritta" chair designed by Sebastian Matta (1911-2002) and produced by Studio Simon Gavina, 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 with normal traces of use; some egal discoloration and the apple stalk has been renewed. Material: fiberglass shell, 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.