Barbara Kruger, lo sgabello di Alvar Aalto- ICA × Artek Available from 1 October 2019

Lo sgabello di Aalto  in  edizione  di Barbara Kruger,  commissionato da  ICA  Londra in collaborazione con  Artek. un’edizione limitata di 300 pezzi a 400 sterline ciascuno. 

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Kiss),
Stool 60, 2019 Design Alvar Aalto ICA × Artek Available from 1 October 2019

The ICA presents a newly commissioned artist’s edition by Barbara Kruger, produced in collaboration with the Finnish furniture company Artek.

Untitled (Kiss) (2019) marries Alvar Aalto’s classic piece of modern furniture design, Stool 60, with a newly commissioned work by conceptual artist Barbara Kruger.


With a career spanning the past fifty years, Kruger is internationally known for her pictures and words. Her photographic works, expansive installations and multichannel videos engage issues of power, gender, identity and value. Finished in Kruger’s signature black, white and red, this bespoke stool is produced in an initial limited edition of 300. Each stool is hand-numbered and finished on the underside with the artist’s stamp of authenticity

Kruger’s Untitled (Kiss) forms the starting point of a new collaboration between the ICA and Finnish furniture company Artek, which will result in a series of artists’ customisations of Stool 60.

Barbara Kruger says:

 ‘This project has been a wonderful opportunity to work with Aalto’s classic piece of modernist furniture, while at the same time supporting the ICA, the first institution that offered me a one-person show of my work in 1983. I was honoured, a bit intimidated, but hugely thrilled by both the ICA and the complex and vital city that was, is, and will always be London. The memory of that exhibition, the wonderful space, the excitement and buzz of the ICA’s programme of visuality and intellectually rigorous public programming, its bookstore and crazily cool cafe, will never fade in my mind.’

Stefan Kalmár, Director, ICA, says:

 ‘It is rare that one can literally sit on one’s own institutional history. Alvar Aalto was a close friend of Jane Drew, the modernist architect of our building when we moved to The Mall in the spring of 1968. The ICA gave the first one-person exhibition to Barbara Kruger in 1983 – and neither the ICA nor Barbara have lost the urgency in confronting the present moment. I could not be happier about this collaboration, as it will allow us to amplify the crucial and critical role that the ICA has to play – now more than ever!’

Marianne Goebl, Managing Director, Artek, says:

 ‘We are excited to see Barbara Kruger’s sharp perspective on consumerism expressed on Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60, possibly the most elemental, yet iconic seating in modern design history. We could not imagine a more distinctive beginning of our collaboration with the ICA, which will celebrate contemporary culture across disciplines.’

Untitled (Kiss) will be launched at Frieze London, 3 – 6 October 2019, and will be available to purchase directly from the ICA from 10am GMT on 1 October.

Order online here: www.ica.art/editions ICA Artists’ Editions will also participate in Frieze London as part of Allied Editions. In addition to Untitled (Kiss), the ICA will be presenting new editions by Mathieu Malouf, James Richards and Jordan Wolfson.

To request further information, images and interviews, please contact: Bridie Hindle, Press Manager, ICA bridie.hindle@ica.art / +44 (0)20 7766 1409

 Helena Strängberg Velardi, Communications Manager, Artek helena.strangberg@artek.fi /
+49 (0)30 261 032 222