Design 
12 December 2013
Design 
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Oppi Untracht

lounge chair

USA/Finland, 1967
welded steel 30¼ h × 22 w × 26 d in (77 × 56 × 66 cm)
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $13,750
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This work is unique.
provenance: Collection of the artist | Thence by descent | Private collection
literature: Metal Techniques For Craftsmen, Untracht, pg. 291 illustrates this work

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Oppi Untracht

Master of Metals

Oppi Untracht (1922 - 2008) is most well-known for his writing and the numerous books he published on metalworking; widely recognized as an expert, his titles Jewelry Concepts and Technology (1982) and Metal Techniques for Craftsmen (1968) are still referenced in the field today.

Untracht received his Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University, New York in 1947. He studied Indian arts becoming an expert in the jewelry from India and Nepal and he taught arts and crafts courses in New York until moving to Finland in 1967. Untracht married the renowned furniture and jewelry designer Saara Hopea in 1960 and he published a book on her life and work in 1984. Throughout his lifetime, Untracht’s connection to metal arts was multifaceted; he was an artist, a collector, a scholar and a collaborator who worked with museums for exhibitions on metal crafts.

This elaborately designed chair was created by Oppi Untracht in the late 1960s. Made of welded steel, this unique chair is exemplary of Untracht’s mastery of metal working. The chair remained in his own personal collection throughout his life.
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