Ico (1916-1996) and Luisa Parisi (1914-1990)

Ico and Luisa Parisi were at the forefront in shaping Italian furniture design of the 1950s. Together with Gio Ponti, Carlo Mollino and Carlo Di Carli, they are considered protagonists of the changing style at that time. Ico Parisi defined himself as a "Renaissance artist" who was interested in all forms of art: He did not want to be seen as an architect (he concluded his studies in this field in Lausanne in 1950), nor as an industrial designer, painter, photographer or installation artist alone, although he practiced in all these disciplines for more than fifty years.

After early experiences as a photographer for Giuseppe Terragni ("La Casa del Fascio", (Como, 1936), and "The Mansion Bianca " (Seveso, 1936),and as documentary film producer ("Como+Como+Como " (1937), and "Risanamento Edilizio della Cittá di Como ("Structural redevelopment of the City Como", (1939)), Parisi participated in the artistic upswing that was occuring in the thirties. He joined together with art-focused groups and cofounded the "Alta Quota", an architectural group followed 1942 by Luisa Aiani, a pupil of Ponti. She and Parisi later married.

In 1945 Parisi organized an exhibition in Como in which, in addition to his own furniture he issued works made by such designers as Paolo Buffa and Silvio Longhi. Both Ico and Luisa later participated at the exhibition of the Galleria di Sagrato. Additional projects included equipment in the state library in Milan (1947) and the arrangement of the journalist exhibition of the Triennale. A mansion in Masilianico, which was built based on Parisi's drafts, was decorated by a Fresko of Mauro Radice and a sculpture of Fausto Melotti.

In 1947 Parisi and Luisa created La Ruota, a studio specialized in interior design. In this environemnt, the Parisis' sketched not only furniture for the most known companies of the Italian furniture industry such as Cassina, M.I.M., Altamira, Longhi, Cappellini and Stildomus, but also ceramics, glasses and jewelry.

The noted furniture house Stildomus issued several works by Parisi in the 1st Salone del Mobile di Milano in 1961. In 1972 Ico Parisi and the art critics Pierre Restany and Enrico Crispolti developed the project "Ipotesi di una Casa Esistenziale" ("Hypothesis for a house of the existencialism), in which varied artists arranged the rooms of an model house designed by Parisi.