VIENNA.- At the heart of the upcoming Dorotheum design auction on 16th June 2016 is a piece of furniture with a special history: The event presents an important early example of organic design, the result of a cooperation between two exceptional architects and design artists of the 20th century, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.

Their „Organic Chair“ was created in 1940, for a competition on „Organic Design in Home Furnishings“ held by the Museum of Modern Art New York. The definition of organic design referred to the “harmonious proportions of individual elements within the object as a whole, with regard to structure, material, and purpose”. The conditions of the competition stipulated that the furniture item could be manufactured on an industrial scale. As a result of the war, this goal was not achieved. Even the intended aluminium legs had to be replaced by wooden ones owing to shortages – though this did not in the end detract from the iconic chair’s beauty and elegance. The original fabric upholstery was designed by the textile designer and Bauhaus student Marli Ehrmann. Dorotheum expects this rare, early example of a design classic to fetch between 35,000 and 50,000 Euro.

The selection presented by this design auction manages to return to the roots of modernism, for example in form of Marcel Kammerer’s furniture for the Hotel Wiesler in Graz, priced at 10,000 und 30,000 Euro, or the shrill Czech Cubism of Jindrich Eck, as well as featuring protagonists of the contemporary African scene, e.g. Amadou Fatouama Ba (Senegal/France), who turns car tires into armchairs and sofas.

Another of the auction’s focal points will be Italian design of the nineteen-eighties. This includes a luminous dining room table „I Soli“ by Mendini, a receding bar by Aldo Tura, or one of only two existing copies of the „Ermafrodito“ daybed, designed by Andrea Granchi for the Mirabili Collection of Poltronova (€4,000–€6,000, €12,000–€18,000, €15,000–€20,000).

Many more design classics, such as the furniture of Danish master Paul Kjaerholm, lamps by Serge Mouille, and a rich selection of design “made in Austria” – for example Carl Auböck’s rare leather-covered bar side-table of 1949 – are also likely to cause a stir.