mid century furniture designers: mario ceroli

mario ceroli

Not too long after graduating from the 'Accademia delle belle Arti' (Art Academy) in Rome, Mario Ceroli became one of the premiere leaders of the 'Arte Povera’ (Poor Art) movement which was characterized by the use of untreated and coarse materials as its leaders expressed a new openness towards materials and were driven by the pop art movement. In his collaboration with Poltronova - 'Mobili nella Valle'- the material that Ceroli chose was untreated Russian Pine. To quote Ceroli - “in my furniture, there is a kind of relationship….the use of raw wood contributes to creating this relationship…furniture to me is usable sculpture to be touched, to be used.” Strongly influenced by his background as a screenplay designer - after all he was a screenplay director at 'La Scala' in Milan as well as il 'Teatro Stabile' in Turin- in its design, Ceroli’s furniture tends to explore the relationship between sculpture and the surrounding environment. In his craftsmanship Ceroli relates to the traditional medieval craftsmen and his sculptures remind us of masterpieces of the past - including the ‘Bocca Della Verita’, a first-century fountain in Rome representing a Pagan God, the ‘Bronzi di Riace’ (the two tall, bronze statues from Calabria that have reached almost mythical proportions) as well as works by Leonardo Da Vinci