Jordi Vilanova

JORDI VILANOVA (Barcelona, 1925-1998)
Set of four Pedralbes chairs, 1967.
Beech wood and fabric.
Measurements: 82 x 45 x 50 cm.

Chair designed and produced in the sixties by the Catalan designer Jordi Vilanova. The beech wood structure is characterized by slightly slanted uprights that accentuate the angle of the edges and give the whole an attractive and unorthodox cubic appearance. The Pedralbes chair is a unique example of Jordi Vilanova's furniture series that was very popular among the Catalan bourgeoisie in the 1960s.

A Catalan interior designer and cabinetmaker, Jordi Vilanova entered the Escuela de Trabajo y Oficios Artísticos de la Lonja in 1939. He completed his training in the workshop of Busquets, and between 1940 and 1953 he collaborated in the studio of Lluís Gili. Jordi Vilanova was founder and promoter of the Catalan art magazine "Questions d'Art" (1967-74). In 1974 he opened premises with a permanent exhibition of furniture and upholstery of his own design, forming part of the Official College of Interior Decorators and Designers of Barcelona and the SAD. His modern furniture and his way of resolving spaces were initially aimed at a large public of limited economic resources and, consequently, homes with less living space. However, this great majority did not understand his proposal. Instead, it was the Catalan bourgeoisie, eager to break with outdated stylistic canons, who embraced his work. His specialty was furniture for children, such as the Delta stool, which won the Delta de Plata Prize awarded by the ADI/FAD in 1964. He held exhibitions of his work in Scandinavia. Among his most representative designs are the Tiracord and Billar chairs (1961), the Montseny MP bunk bed (1961), the Tartera (1966) and Petit (1978) rockers and the Z magazine rack (1987) designed with his son Pau Vilanova Vila-Abadal. It is currently represented in the Design Museum of Barcelona.