In 2013 the distinguished Italian furniture manufacturing company Cassina invited Karl Lagerfeld to choose his favorite pieces of furniture for an unusual photographic mise-enscene: I had never worked on a project like this before. To visually reinterpret examples of perfect design is completely new for me, and therefore stimulating, exciting even. Before Lagerfelds lens, iconic chairs, tables and chaise longues by Modernist legends such as Le Corbusier, Rietveld and Perriand condense to their absolute, abstract essence. In his inimitably sleek and sophisticated photographs, Lagerfeld reveals the form in Formalism. Here furniture is seen in an atypical, decontextualized mode of presentation, detached from its usual environment, isolated and dramatically lit like a sculpture. The result is a tenderly chosen compendium of twenty-one images that respects the artistic intentions of the designers while simultaneously creating a new aesthetic.
