Vico Magistretti (1920-2006) Italian, (4) Kartell Maui Swivel Side Chairs On Wheels. Classic Mid Century Modern solid shell design, part of a highly successful office furniture line. No height adjustment. Name on underside. 

Size: 20 x 21 x 31 1/4 in. 

Vico Magistretti was born on October 6th, 1920 in Milan, Italy, the son of an architect. He fled his military service in World War II in 1943, hiding out in Switzerland. While there he taught at the local university and took courses at the Champ Universitaire Italien in Lausanne, meeting and becoming heavily influenced by Ernesto Nathan Rogers, whose humanist ideas about architecture and reconstruction inspired a generation of intellectual expatriates. He returned to Milan in 1945, graduating from the Politecnico di Milano University later that year. He worked at the firm owned by his father, Pier Giulio, alongside the architect Paolo Chessa, initially focused on urban design. In the 1950s he moved into the field of mass-produced furniture and lamps, working freelance for numerous other companies including Artemide, Cassina, De Padova, Flou, Fritz Hansen, Kartell, and Schiffini. His first major success was the Carimate chair for Cassina, mixing straw and “rural” materials with urban sophistication and Scandinavian simplicity. Magistretti received many awards, including the Gold Medal and Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale, two Compasso d’Oro awards, and the Gold Medal of the Chartered Society of Industrial Artists & Designers in 1986. He taught for 20 years at the Royal College of Art in London and was appointed as a Royal Designer for Industry. He also taught at Domus Academy in Milan and was an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Incorporation of Architects. Magistretti’s works have been exhibited widely throughout the world, and many are held in permanent displays at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the ADI Design Museum in Milan, among others. He died on September 19th, 2006, and his legacy is overseen by the Vico Magistretti Foundation.