Description
Artist / Designer: Willy Rizzo (Italian, 1928–2013)
Year: 1970s
Object: Monumental Square Coffee / Cocktail Table with Integrated Bar
Materials: Brushed stainless steel, black base, integrated stainless-steel container
Dimensions: 140 × 140 × 30 cm
Origin: Italy
Period: 1970s
Design: Willy Rizzo
Features: Hand-signed by the artist / Central recessed stainless-steel container conceived as an ice / champagne cooler or planter
DESCRIPTION
This monumental square coffee table was designed by Willy Rizzo during the 1970s, a period in which the celebrated photographer increasingly turned his attention towards furniture and interior design.
Measuring an impressive 140 × 140 cm, the table is conceived as a low architectural volume. Its broad surface is executed in brushed stainless steel and appears to float above a recessed black base, giving an object of considerable scale an unexpected visual lightness.
At the centre, a square stainless-steel container is integrated directly into the table. Conceived as a functional element, it could be filled with ice to keep champagne, wine or other drinks chilled, or used as a planter or display element.
The contrast between the expansive horizontal surface, the deeply recessed central opening and the dark floating base gives the table an almost sculptural presence.
CONTEXT
Rizzo’s furniture of the late 1960s and 1970s developed alongside a profound transformation in domestic interiors. Formal arrangements of individual armchairs and occasional tables increasingly gave way to low sofas, modular seating, conversation pits, and more informal forms of lounging and entertaining.
The monumental scale of this table should be understood within that context.
Rather than functioning simply as a conventional coffee table placed in front of a sofa, it becomes a social centre around which people can gather. Drinks can be cooled directly within the integrated central container, while the exceptionally generous surface provides space for books, objects, food and personal belongings.
Its proportions also allow the table to function beyond the traditional living-room setting. It can operate almost as a low architectural platform: an extension of a library or seating area, a surface for books and collections, or a plinth-like setting for sculpture and other works of art.
This combination of display, hospitality and function is characteristic of Rizzo’s approach to furniture during the period.
MATERIAL AND DESIGN
Stainless steel played an important role in Willy Rizzo’s furniture vocabulary during the 1970s.
Rizzo was attracted to the material precisely because it combined modernity, durability and visual refinement. Rather than treating metal as an industrial novelty, he used it as a luxurious architectural surface.
In the present table, the brushed finish softens the reflective quality of the stainless steel and emphasizes the purity of the square geometry. The low black base is deliberately withdrawn from the perimeter, reinforcing the impression that the large metallic volume is suspended slightly above the floor.
The integrated central container introduces a characteristic element of Rizzo’s cocktail tables: luxury is not added as decoration, but incorporated directly into the function of the object.
LIVING AND ENTERTAINING IN THE 1970s
The table embodies the increasingly informal culture of entertaining that emerged during the 1970s.
Its unusually generous dimensions make sense within interiors conceived around lounging, conversation and groups rather than traditional upright seating. The table becomes part furniture, part bar and part social landscape.
More than fifty years later, this scale gives the design a remarkably contemporary character. In a large residential interior it can anchor a seating arrangement, while in a gallery, library or collector’s home, its broad uninterrupted surface can equally function as a platform for books, ceramics, sculpture and objects.
POSITIONING
This work is particularly relevant for:
Private collections of post-war Italian and European design
Large-scale residential interiors and conversation areas
Collections exploring the relationship between furniture, architecture and lifestyle in the 1970s
Libraries and collector’s interiors, where the table can function as a low display platform
Interiors combining collectible design with sculpture and contemporary art
For further information, condition reports, additional photographs or shipping enquiries, please contact the gallery.
