Antoni Gaudí

After ANTONI GAUDÍ (Reus or Riudoms, Tarragona, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926).
Stool-sculpture Calvet.
Varnished solid oak.
Measurements: 64 x 59 x 40 cm.
The "Calvet" stool is an original design by Gaudí from 1902, reedited by BD and produced in a handmade way, with the same original materials and all the richness of details with which the originals were made in their day. It is a corner stool with curved and smooth lines, with a small backrest reminiscent of the central balconies of the back façade of the Casa Calvet. The legs, as well as the pieces that join them, are straight, thus generating an interesting contrast. It is a simple and comfortable piece of furniture. Gaudí designed it to be placed in one of the corners of the management office of the Casa Calvet.
The maximum representative of Catalan modernism and, therefore, of Spanish modernism, Gaudí is one of the most outstanding architects and decorators in European history. He studied architecture at the Escuela de la Llotja and the Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, where he graduated in 1878. With his first major commission, the Casa Vicens, he began to acquire renown and to attract increasingly larger commissions. In 1878 he exhibited at the Universal Exposition in Paris a showcase made for the Comella glove shop. This piece, with its modernist and functional design, impressed the industrialist Eusebi Güell, a key figure in Gaudí's artistic biography. In fact, Güell was, in addition to being Gaudí's great friend, his main patron, and commissioned some of his most outstanding works, such as the Park Güell. In 1883 he accepted the commission to continue the work on the Sagrada Familia; Gaudí totally modified the initial project, and this construction became his masterpiece, on which he worked until the day of his death. This project was followed by other important commissions, such as the episcopal palace of Astorga, the Batlló and Milá houses and the restoration of the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca. In 1910 the first exhibition dedicated to Gaudí was held at the Grand Palais in Paris. After his death, important retrospectives of the architect were held, including the one at MoMA in New York, his first major international exhibition, which took place in 1957. Today, Gaudí's designs for furniture and decorative arts can be admired at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the MOMA in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, as well as in his House-Museum in Park Güell.