Mart STAM (1899-1986) for Matteo Grassi - Lot 252

Mart STAM (1899-1986) for Matteo Grassi SUITE of four MG5 cantilever chairs, chromed steel tubular frame, brown leather upholstery. With publisher's stamp. Designed in 1926 by Mart Stam and revised by Centro Studi in 1979. Date of edition: circa 1980. 80 x 54 x 52 cm (good condition). Dutch architect and designer Mart Stam studied drawing at the Rijksnormaal School voor Tekenonderwijs in Amsterdam from 1917 to 1919, then worked as a trainee in various architectural offices in Amsterdam, Zurich and Rotterdam. In 1922, he moved to Berlin, where he worked with architects Max Taut and Hans Poelzig. After a few years in Switzerland, where he co-edited the magazine "ABC", Stam took part in the 1927 Werkbund exhibition with his tubular steel furniture. With Gerrit Rietveld, he was also one of the founders of the CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne), launched in 1928 at the Château de la Sarraz (Switzerland). From 1929 to 1930, Stam was a guest lecturer at the Bauhaus, before moving to the USSR to work on urban planning with the architect Ernst May. On his return to Amsterdam, he opened a freelance architectural studio with his wife Lotte Beese. From 1948 to 1950, he was appointed Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, then from 1950 to 1953 of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin-Weißensee. After the suppression of the workers' uprising in the former GDR, Stam returned to the Netherlands. In 1966, he retired to Switzerland. As a furniture designer, Mart Stam became famous for the construction of the first free-swinging tubular steel chair without back legs (Cantilever), which he presented in 1926.