Franco Campo and Carlo Graffi

Private collection, Italy

Dir. (Carlo Enrico Rava), Una casa a Torino , Prospettive, year I n. 2 March 1952, pp.17-22

Una serie di mobili, Domus, no. 284, July 1953, p.47

Robert Aloi, Esempi di arredamento Moderno di Tutto Il Mondo Tavoli Tavolini Carrelli seconda serie, Milan, 1955, fig. 182

Irene de Gutty and Maria Paola Maino, Il Mobile Italiano degli anni 40 e 50, Bari, 2010, p. 126

This lot is sold with a certificate from Professor Davide Alaimo.

We would like to thank Suzanna Campo for her assistance on the authentication of the table.

For Carlo Enrico Rava (director of the magazine Prospettive), the work of Franco Campo and Carlo Graffi is characterised by obvious reminiscences of 'Mollinism', which are not always well understood.

For Gio Ponti, who published the sketches of this table model in Domus in July 1953, the Mollinian filiation of the two architects' work is obvious. While at the time these remarks were written they may have seemed critical, Mollino is now considered one of the greatest designers of the 20th century and such a connection can only be read as a tremendous recognition of the design qualities of the work of both designers. In addition, Campo and Graffi were Mollino's students, his assistants when he held the chair of architectural composition at the Polytechnic of Turin. They were also his close collaborators on various architectural projects.

We must then quote Plato: The master is the model of the pupil, the pupil admires the master and thus imitates him.

The table, which we had the pleasure of studying with Franco Campo's daughter Susanna, reflects the quasi-contemporary research of the master. The two students succeeded in putting their creativity at the service of an exalted organicist research, assisted by a craftsman with extraordinary technical skills (a real sculptor!) and with the help of a sycamore maple wood that today, thanks to its excellent state of conservation, amazes us with its perfect patina.

This is a more sophisticated example than the one published in Domus, probably made for a client who wanted a larger table. It is composed of two additional crossbars that form the "backbone" of the furniture, underlined by a moulding that lightens its volume.

While Carlo Mollino was primarily interested in the technical dimension of construction (his tables are reminiscent of the frames of mountain houses and highlight the use of the bent plywood technique), the conceptual approach of the two students is primarily anatomical.

The foot becomes a real skeleton. Vertebrae, ribs and shoulder blades of a prehistoric animal that one comes to regret covering with the reflections of a glass plate. It is enough to pass one's hand over the sculpted legs, to touch the central cavity in relief, sharp in some places and perfectly rounded in others, to feel an almost erotic pleasure, which the master was certainly looking for.

Davide Alaimo