It was 1968 when Gaetano Pesce began experimenting at his Paris atelier with vacuum-packing the hippest material of the moment: polyurethane. Soon he’d developed a gravity-defying model: a four-inch-thick disk that, when removed from its PVC envelope, would rise from the floor into a cushy armchair. Fittingly, he named it Up. The form that emerged was no typical seat. Its bulbous shape, inspired by silhouettes of ancient fertility goddesses and accompanied by an ottoman, was rife with meaning.

Furniture manufacturer B&B Italia (then known as C&B) produced the seat the next year. It was innovative, it was easily transported, it was the future. Or so the firm thought. In 1973 B&B Italia ceased production of Up after discovering that Freon, the leavening ingredient mixed with polyurethane, was harmful to the ozone layer. But the chair had already made a name for itself… actually several. Referred to as La Mamma, Big Mama, and Donna, nearly 50 years later the icon (B&B introduced a Freon-free version in 2000) has developed quite a following (fashion designer Lisa Perry; Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis). Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, who has shown Pesce’s work at her New York gallery Salon 94, calls it “practical radical.”

Literature: Gaetano Pesce Architecture Design Art, Vanlaethem, pg. 52 discusses the UP series Repertorio 1950-1980, Gramigna, pg. 288 100 Masterpieces from the Vitra Design Museum, von Vegesack, ppg. 50-51

Condition: small black stain (ink?) to seating area, slight colour difference between the seat and the footrest possibly due to sun exposure. Overall condition consistent with normal use, please refer to photographs.

Dimensions of the chair: 103cm high, 120cm wide, 130cm deep; seat height, 42cm. Dimensions of ottoman: 57cm diameter