Enzo Mari ‘Cuginetto’ side tables

As Oliver Basciano wrote in Enzo Mari’s obituary in the Guardian in 2020, politics infused everything that designer Enzo Mari touched. An ardent communist, Mari hated the gallery. Seeing it as pornographic window dressing, he preferred to make pieces for mass production or eschew it altogether, offering his designs open source to the public to make themselves, seen in his project ‘Autoprogettazione’. Mari liked to make a statement – 44 abstract marbles when assembled, becoming a giant hammer and sickle.

The Cugino table is part of his 1973 table series for Driade, an Italian producer known as the ‘factory of art’. A transparent crystal top valorises the harsh minimalism of the anthracite steel base. The smaller side tables in the series are nicknamed the diminutive ‘Cuginetto’ – ‘little cousin’.

In good condition, some minor marking to the steel base and small chip to the glass top. Two available, purchased individually or as a pair.

W50 D50 H62cm

H049E