Skip to content

Traccia Table

c. 1939/1972

by Meret Oppenheim
for Cassina

Traccia Table

by Meret Oppenheim
for  Cassina

or Call to Order

The Traccia side table was designed in 1939 by Merit Oppen­heim for Leo Castelli’s avant-garde gallery. It was dubbed the Bird Leg Table”, for fairly obvious reasons. The slim-line legs and the taloned feet in polished cast bronze pay homage to the claw-foot furni­ture of the past. Traccia launched in 1971 as part of designer Dino Gavina’s l’opera d’arte funzionale”, or func­tional artworks. This inau­gu­rated a new approach to furnish­ing where surreal objects were adapted for every­day use and led to the creation of the Ultramobile collection.

Around this time, the Simon Inter­na­tional company produced a limited edition in a smaller size. This has now been re-released by Cassina, fully respect­ing the original design. 

Video

Meret Oppenheim

Germany (1913-1985)

Meret Oppenheim is an artist with a free and instinctive creativity, inquisitive nature and complex personality. Her work is versatile, lending itself to incorporate the application of various artistic techniques. After her move to Paris in 1932, she worked among great masters of surrealism, such as Arp, Giacometti, Breton, Man Ray, Duchamp and Max Ernst – who became her intimate companion. The surrealist movement had great influence in Oppenheim’s life but nevertheless she created her own identity.

Her most famous work “Déjeuner en fourrure” (Breakfast in fur), was purchased by Alfred H. Barr from Charles Ratton Gallery for the MoMA in New York, and dates back to these years. Back to Paris in 1939, she took part in the exhibition on “imaginary” furniture with Max Ernst and Leonor Fini; in that event, she presented Traccia, the famous table with bird’s legs.

More in Furniture

View All