Birillo Bar Stool
1971 · Stainless steel, fiberglass, and leather
41 1/2 x 19 1/2 x 19 1/2" (105.4 x 49.5 x 49.5 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Joe Colombo
Italian, 1930
Representation
None documented
3
Institutional Exhibitions
22
Works in Collection
42
Assets Indexed
3
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
80%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Movements
No movements recorded
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Selected Institutional Exhibitions
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Italy: The New Domestic Landscape
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1972
No image
Recent Acquisitions: Design Collection
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1970–1971
No image
Recent Acquisitions: Design Collection
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1967–1968
About
Why this artist matters now
Joe Colombo designed furniture, industrial objects, and domestic environments that merged postwar functionalist modernism with systematic approaches to ergonomics and modular living. His plastic chairs, fitted kitchens, and experimental spatial prototypes were calibrated to human movement and everyday use, anticipating later frameworks of flexible, user-responsive design. Working in Italy during the 1950s and 1960s, Colombo treated the home as a problem of coordinated systems rather than discrete objects, establishing methods that influenced subsequent generations of product and environmental design.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 25d ago
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Artworks (22)
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Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
In collection
Victoria and Albert Museum
Record