Eero Saarinen

EERO SAARINEN (Finland, 1910 - United States, 1961).
Side table "Tulip". ca. 1960.
Marble top.
Enameled aluminum base.
Knoll edition, for H Furniture.
It has a slight indentation on the edge of the marble.
Measurements: 52 x 40 x 40 cm.

Towards 1960 Eero Saarinen designs a collection of furniture for Knoll International in which the four legs disappear both in the tables and in the chairs, legs that the designer considered unsightly and that he replaced by supports of base atrompetada: it will be known as Tulip Collection, nowadays turned into one of the most iconic collections of international design of the 20th century. The one we present here is a side table model, with a white enameled aluminum base and a circular top in light marbled marble.

Saarinen initially studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris, and later architecture at Yale University. He then furthered his studies in Europe on a scholarship, and upon his return took a teaching position at Cranbrook Academy, one of the most important architectural and industrial design schools in the United States. In 1937 he began designing furniture in collaboration with Charles Eames, winning the 1940 prize in the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Later, as an independent, Saarinen will create furniture designs for the firm Knoll International. As an architect, Saarinen became famous for his spaces with curved lines, especially in the roofs of his buildings, with which he managed to give them a great lightness. One of his most representative and well-known buildings is the TWA terminal at J. F. Kennedy Airport in New York. His designs are currently present in the most important collections around the world, including that of the MoMA in New York.