Plucked from a dream, the surrealist mastery of the MAgriTTA armchair plays with our sense of perception. An apple and English bowler cap, masterfully hand-built in brilliant color and larger-than-life proportion, present themselves with the slightest tilt and a sense of playfulness. These recurring symbols from the imaginative work of artist René Magritte are brought to life in this visionary design by the iconic Roberto Matta, a Chilean painter whose life and work in Italy and abroad heavily influenced the history of twentieth century surrealist art.
The chair blends elements of the curious and absurd into a perfectly poised seat – a firmly structured form nestling a soft foam cushion upholstered with elastic bouclé wool. Through intentional construction and artisanal expertise, the form springs to life in striking color: midnight black set against the verdant green chosen for the original design by Matta nearly 50 years ago. Matta’s original colorway is complemented by two additional contemporary editions: the deep red of the MAgriTTA Rouge and the golden yellow of the MAgriTTA Jaune.
Roberto Matta’s MAgriTTA design pays elegant homage to the influence of René Magritte’s artistic impact on twentieth century Surrealism, which lives on in works like his renowned 1964 “Son of Man” painting and is present in museum collections around the world. The form takes Magritte’s iconography even further, gently inserting the apple into the hat itself, while the chair’s title builds on this sense of synthesis, cleverly combining the surnames of the artist and designer in dynamic lettering. Through the juxtaposition of the unexpected, the MAgriTTA invites us closer, celebrating the spirit of curiosity and questioning. What is real? What is imagined? What is furniture itself? The inquisitive nature of the MAgriTTA returns us to the heart of Italian radical design: to challenge the expected and imagine the unexpected.
