1984, translucent polyurethane, with embossed inscription: NEW YORK/1984, height 93 cm, width 53 cm, depth 53 cm, height of seat 51 cm. (DR) A unique specimen. This chair is No. 7 from an edition of nine, each of which features a different hardness of material and colour. Provenance: private ownership, Düsseldorf, Germany. Lit.: A. Bangert, Italy Furniture Design, Munich 1988, p. 92 - F. Vanlaethem, Gaetano Pesce: Architecture Design Art, London 1989, pp. 83ff. - Il Rumore del Tempo. Gaetano Pesce, La Triennale di Milano 2005, p. 97 - MOMA Highlights since 1980, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2007, p. 60. In 1983, Gaetano Pesce developed an experimental series of chairs in cooperation with the Pratt Institute in New York in which he fathomed the boundaries between design and art on the one hand and the potentials of urethane as a new material on the other. The series started with chair No. 1, which resembles a mould and is so soft that one cannot sit in it. In the subsequent models the chairs gradually become harder. Regardless of the free form and the material’s flexibility, the chairs thus created are fully functional objects. The surfaces are decorated with various symbols and motifs. The outline of the backrest is meant to represent Gaetano Pesce’s portrait in profile.