Eero Saarinen

EERO SAARINEN (Finland, 1910 - United States, 1961) for KNOLL.
Tulip table, 1970s.
Wood top.
Black enameled metal base.
Measurements: 72 x 120 x 120 cm.

Around 1960 Eero Saarinen designed a collection of furniture for Knoll International in which the four legs disappeared in both tables and chairs, legs that the designer considered unsightly and replaced them with supports of atrompetada base: it will be known as Tulip Collection, now become one of the most iconic collections of international design of the twentieth century. The one presented here is a later model that follows the same principle, with a black enameled metal base and a circular tabletop in grained wood.

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 thanks to a scholarship, and upon his return he took up a teaching position at Cranbrook Academy, one of the most important architecture 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.