Cassina As Seen by Karl

The Italian furniture manufacturing company CASSINA invited Karl Lagerfeld to choose his favorite pieces of furniture for an unusual photographic mise-en-scène: ＂I had never ’worked’ on a project like this before. To visually reinterpret examples of perfect design is completely new for me, and therefore stimulating, exciting even＂. Under Lagerfeld’s lens, well-known chairs, tables and chaise-longues by Modernist legends such as Le Corbusier, Rietveld, Jeanneret and Perriand condense to their absolute, abstract essence. In his inimitably sleeky but sophisticated photographs, Lagerfeld reveals the form in Formalism. Here, furniture is seen in a rather untypical, decontextualized mode of presentation, detached from its usual environment, isolated and decently lit like a sculpture. The result is a tenderly-chosen compendium of 21 images that cautiously respects the artistic intentions of the designers while at the same time adding up aesthetically.