“Majesty Betrayed” by Gaetano Pesce, Piazza S. Maria Novella, Florence. Photo by Angelo

“Joker Girl” by Beatrice Brandini

Forty-eight years ago Gaetano Pesce created an armchair, the magnificent UP, the symbol of the woman prisoner of prejudice, the secondary role for her in the company (the puff ball, bound with chains to the chair, a warning to female slavery). Terribly current topics, now present in the brutal daily news.

UP Gaetano Pesce armchair 

UP Armchairs by Gaetano Pesce, exposure Museo del Novecento “Majesty Betrayed”

UP Gaetano Pesce armchair

UP Gaetano Pesce armchair

It was so much that I wanted to dedicate a piece to this great architect – designer, a recent exhibition in Florence gave me an opportunity to do so.

“Endless Unica” chair by Gaetano Pesce for Meritalia

The exhibition “Majesty Betrayed”, now at Milan for the Design Week, takes us into the world of this important artist, with its colorful poetic, soft, round, supple …, feminine adjectives to describe a designer always close women and their profile.

Work Gaetano Pesce at the exhibition “Majesty Betrayed”, Museo del Novecento in Florence. Pesce gives voice to the bodies of women all over the world with the creation of the famous UP armchair giant version, “covered” by dozens of women’s clothes.

   

“Majesty betrayed”, 2016  and “Woman with dress in red fabric”, 2015 works by Gaetano Pesce exposition “Betrayed Majesty” at the Museo del Novecento in Florence

“UP rags” 2016 pencil and watercolor drawing by Gaetano Pesce exposition “Betrayed Majesty” at the Museo del Novecento in Florence

   

Works by Gaetano Pesce exposition “Betrayed Majesty” at the Museo del Novecento in Florence

   

“Majesty Betrayed” Gaetano Pesc at the Museo del Novecento in Florence

Works by Gaetano Pesce exposition “Betrayed Majesty” at the Museo del Novecento in Florence

“Sofà New York” by Gaetano Pesce for Cassina

Anyone who knows me (and I repeated frequently in my blog) know how much I love the playful and “light” art, works of art and objects while guarding a message often much deeper than it appears, make the most cheerful our homes, our daily lives. Gaetano Pesce, with his versatile activity that ranges from architecture, to design, from fashion to theater, from cinema to housing proposals, has certainly enriched the world with his beautiful and amazing inventions.

Sofa “La Fiorita” by Gaetano Pesce for Meritalia

Sofa “The Jester” by Gaetano Pesce for Meritalia

   

Sofa “La Michetta” di Gaetano Pesce for Meritalia (credits Meritalia www.meritalia.it)

Born in La Spezia, he is formed as an architect in Venice, along with figures (but it would be more correct to call them personality), as Carlo Scarpa, Ernest Nathan etc. adhering to GruppoN, one of the first architectural collectives considered essential coexistence of architecture, painting, sculpture and industrial project.

   

Pescetrullo, Carovigno (Brindisi). Housing Gaetano Pesce in collaboration with Gabriele Pimpin and Cosimo Cardone

Project by Gaetano Pesce for Melissa

Gaetano Pesce has always tried to express themselves experiencing, so through new materials, new forms and new means of expression (such as unusual as light or movement), becoming an outstanding interpreter of contemporary culture. From the beginning has always been a promoter of the “the artist’s inconsistency”, an expression of freedom, change and diversity. Understand well as Pesce is an incredibly modern artist and how much we need heads like him in this world.

“Majesty Betrayed” by Gaetano Pesce, Piazza S. Maria Novella Florence

   

Other glimpses of “Majesty Betrayed” by Gaetano Pesce, Piazza S. Maria Novella Florence

The banner of the exhibition in which is reflected the splendid facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella

Pesce has participated in memorable exhibitions such as the MoMA “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” in 1972. He has designed public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. His works are in major museums around the world, like the MoMA and the Met in New York, the Victoria and Albert in London, the Center George Pompidou in Paris, the Vitra Museum in Germany … He has taught at architecture schools in Strasbourg, France, in Pittsburgh, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, at the Domus Academy in Milan, New York and Sao Paulo. How lucky those students who have had as a teacher.

“Policroma” by Beatrice Brandini

    

Gaetano Pesce’s mood by Beatrice Brandini

Gaetano Pesce

Thanks Gaetano Pesce, thank you for your creativity, thanks for your search, thank you for your rebellion, thank you for your sensitive and careful eye towards women, thank you for considering the human being the center of your work (and do not vice versa), thank you for having democratized art, considering it a product of our time service.

Good life to everyone!

Beatrice