AXTMANBRILLA
is brought by
BRILLA CONSULTING GMBH & CO.KG, GERMANY
in collaboration with
MARKETING & CONSULTING DI GIULIA KASCINA, ITALY
An astonishing piece that serves as a vivid example of so called Art Deco “renaissance” that occurred during the early post-modernist period of European industrial design. That flow of prohibition era eclecticism, if you will, arrived right after the dawn of the golden age of international design and architecture. We cannot imagine the classical 50’s American taste without it’s blend mad avenue skysrappers, it’s colourful and naive yet functional and frenzy suburban interiors. A lucid dream of a shiny plastic tomorrow filled to the brim with commodities. Future was to become nothing but perfect.
But the 70s differed a lot. Air was dense from the film grain and the downtown sewer grime. It was the time of disappointment in idealistic promises, of broken rose-tinted glasses. But as a response we received a flourishing of a counter culture. It was the time that has formed our modern perception of music, cinema, and fashion. Design was obviously no exception.
I personally adore this piece of entertainment furniture because of its profound decadent nature. It’s a statement, an ode to pure hedonism. The straight geometry of lines and tasteful chrome finish gives it a unique look that is hard to confuse with any other style. The designer was clearly inspired a lot with industry hegemons of it’s time. Willy Rizzo was surely amongst them, if not even the famous designer of this wonderful piece of an Art Deco style dry bar.
Willi Rizzo
Willi Rizzo (1928-2013), born in Naples, was an Italian photographer and designer. He started his career as photographer of VIPs and fashion in Paris in the early 1940s. His artful photographs has been exhibited worldwide. After relocation to Rome in 1968, Rizzo began to work as furniture designer, initially for his own needs. Although his intention was not to become a professional designer of furniture, his friends and clients overwhelmed him with orders of his extraordinary creations of stunning furniture pieces. Many of them were part of the upper class of fashion and film industries which he served in his former career as outstanding photographer. Willi Rizzo was perfectly placed as the designer for the Dolce Vita of Rome, being himself even a part of it. Salvador Dali was among his customers like celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot.
His furniture design has been inspired by the great Bauhaus architect and designer Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. His pieces combined clean lines with bold geometric forms and a delicate taste for the material which he used. He certainly deserves to be seen as avantgarde for the later developed design language of purism by his principle of simplification. Today his elliptical marble table is exhibited at the MoMA in New York.
