Wood Dining Table Model "TP UNOPIEDI"

'TP UNOPIEDI' model dining table in lacquered wood, metal details and glass top.

Prod.Atelier Willy Rizzo,Italy, 1970 ca.

75 x 130 x 13 cm.

Very good conditions. 

Willy Rizzo (Naples, October 22, 1928 - Paris, February 25, 2013) was an Italian photographer and designer. Born in Naples, he moved to France with his mother in the thirties. His passion for photography was born very early: from the age of twelve, in the

Italian boarding school in rue Sédillot (Paris), he began to make portraits of his schoolmates with the Agfa Box given to him by his mother.

After World War II and the occupation of France, he was hired by Point de Vue and worked in Tunisia during the conflict in North Africa. Life magazine later bought his relationship. He was then hired by France Dimanche, for a publication concerning the private

life of celebrities. Attracted by the charm of the United States and by the still mythical world of Californian celebrities, he went to New York to work with the Black Star agency, which was making a name for itself in post-war America.

During this time, he managed to shoot exclusive features on Hollywood legends such as Gregory Peck and Gary Cooper. Imagination and necessity allowed Willy Rizzo to try his hand at the world of furniture design as well. This activity began in Rome in 1966,

while he was working for a hairdresser. In a short time he obtained many requests, including that of Ghighi Cassini, the columnist of the American newspaper Hearst, who coined the term "jet set" to describe a particular lifestyle and worldliness.

He later worked for Rodolfo Parisi, Gigi Rizzi, Franco Rapetti, Salvador Dalí and Brigitte Bardot. In 1968 he completed the creation of his own studio and factory in Tivoli, which employed more than 150 people.

Over the next ten years, Rizzo designed and created more than thirty pieces of furniture, opening boutiques throughout France, Europe and the United States (in New York, Miami and Los Angeles). However, in 1978 Rizzo left the business to return to

photography, his first love. Rizzo's furniture is mostly exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He returned to furniture design for a period in the 1980s and then again in the mid-2000s, in partnership with Paul Smith and Mallett Antiques.

In 2010, at the age of 82, he opened his first gallery in Paris, with the help of his third wife Dominique and his children, Willy Rizzo Jr, Camilla and Gloria.

He died in Paris in 2013, aged 84.