Eugenio Gerli (n. 1923) & Mario Cristiani Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Defined by Luigi Caccia Dominioni as his best student, Eugenio Gerli (1923-2013) was among the protagonists of design starting from the fifties and sixties. His activity has ranged from architecture to restoration, from design to art, especially cinematographic art. Read the full biography

Defined by Luigi Caccia Dominioni as his best student, Eugenio Gerli (1923-2013) was among the protagonists of design starting from the fifties and sixties. His activity has ranged from architecture to restoration, from design to art, especially cinematographic art. Some of his works have become design icons and have been exhibited in the main museums of the world: the S82-S83 removable chairs (1962), the Clamis armchair (1966), the Graphis office system (1967) which sold millions of pieces . His maternal grandfather, the deputy Eugenio Chiesa who accused Mussolini in Parliament as an accomplice to the Matteotti crime, died in exile in France hunted by the Duce's assassins. His father Guido was first locked up in isolation in the San Vittore prison, then in various concentration camps in Italy. Gerli built his educational path by graduating in Architecture in Milan with Gio Ponti and Piero Portaluppi after two years at the Faculty of Engineering, but continuing to cultivate his other two great passions, music (he played the saxophone) and cinema, which projected him beyond any fashion or pattern. Strong friendships and relationships of esteem that Gerli developed in the field of design (in particular the partnership with Ettore Sottsass) and architecture: with Giovanni Muzio, Franco Albini and Luigi Caccia Dominioni and, internationally, with Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto. In his work the essentiality of architectural lines is always integrated with references to visual art, which he nourished through his acquaintances at the Jamaica bar in Brera: Arnaldo Pomodoro, Lucio Fontana, Pietro Cascella, Guido and Sandro Somarè, Blasco Mentor. Six decades of design and architecture (villas, condominiums, office buildings, factories, banks, shops), restoration of historic buildings, both often with custom-made interiors and furnishings, draw their lifeblood from a European and international culture honed in practice by trade and on a continuous logic of accuracy, reliability and research.