Short Stories

Poiesis. Sculture di Angelo Mangiarotti #9


9 1In 1988 Arquati, a company specialised in the production of wooden profiles for picture frames and today leader brand in awnings, enters in the sophisticated world of the editions of art works. The direction was entrusted to the Milanese anrchitect Angelo Mangiarotti (1921-2012) and the wooden sculptures collection Poiesis rised.
This one was immediately at the center of attention thanks to its symbolic and totemic forms, joined with a new use of the old material, composed by showy colors and unexpected veins.



9 2Mangiarotti exalted the new nature of the material with an alphabet composed by non-orthogonal cuts, twists and emptyings, experiencing an unprecedented range of colors defined few years before in cooperation with Alpi, a leader company in stained and recomposed wood veneers.



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The veneer sheets are initially immersed in different color baths, then stacked, glued, pressed and only finally turned. The color is entirely internal to the material and delicate combinations and surprising shades emerge thanks to diagonal cuts and skilful shapes.



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Like in this sculpture characterised by a red and green coexistence, a free shape and a perfect balance despite of the appearance, a typical Mangiarotti feature in designing continuous forms in an everlasting equilibrium between thicknesses and surfaces.

Sizes: 32x12,5xh.26 cm.



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Manufactured in the Pierluigi Ghianda (Bovisio Masciago 1926-2015) workshop, who was defined “the wood poet”, it has imprinted on fire the Angelo Mangiarotti signature and the number 95, due to the progressive and limited edition of the objects.



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Also the curious wording “by ITALO” evidently appears, paying homage to the cabinetmaker who took care of the realisation step by step, starting to the solid wood recomposition and passing through the initial roughing till the complete turning.



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The pieces which compose the Poiesis set are collected with progressive number and sizes in the homonymous publication Poiesis, Sculture di Angelo Mangiarotti. It is considered an unfindable object due to the fact that it was the catalogue intended only to the clients and so printed in few copies and it still represents the only testimony of that wonderful experience, sealed on the cover by the relief signature of Angelo Mangiarotti.

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