High-end Designer Armchair with History for Collectors

The Frailero armchair is an exclusive piece linked to the history of design in Spain . The project originally arose from the hand of Artespaña, a Spanish public company that made efforts to make Spanish industrial design visible internationally. In the 80s, the company contacted the best Spanish designers of the moment to carry out a very special commission named Azimut, where they were required to design furniture with the following guidelines: exclusive, high-quality noble materials, maximum technical quality in the manufacture of each piece of the collection, research for the recovery of traditional Spanish designs and distinction of Spanish craftsmanship. Among all the pieces designed, theFrailero Armchair by D José Luis Pérez Ortega , a magnificent piece inspired by the austere armchair of the 16th century that, due to its structural simplicity, its linear character and the quality of materials, today continues to be a valued design piece, at the forefront and that is part of the permanent collection of the Design Museum of Barcelona, ​​and the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid. ArtesMoble manufactures the original piece serialized and signed by the designer .

Once upon a time there was a country called "Spain", where there were Kings who used to sit on austere armchairs, but seated in them they dominated the seas and commerce.

The armchair owes the name "Frailero" due to its convent origin in 16th-century Spanish Italy and due to the firm purpose of evangelizing the territories annexed to the Spanish crown, the Frailero Armchair spread throughout all the territories of the Spanish Empire until it became a characteristic piece of furniture of the time. Above them kings, viceroys and authorities in the name of Christianity and the King of Spain governed the seas and commerce, administering an empire present on five continents, Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. One of the largest empires in universal history in extension with its lights and shadows that led to Christianity, the Spanish language and the Greco-Roman culture for its own identity to the ends of the world.

The Frailero Armchair is also manufactured with an external structure in stainless steel with an epoxy finish in different colors and the armrests tinted with the exclusive finishes from the ArtesMoble high-quality furniture collection and lacquered in any RAL color to allow the piece to be personalized. While the set is built with elements of great formal simplicity , of a linear and austere character, the armrests are resolved with an elegant set of curved shapes turned into wood. It is also here that the object acquires its most ambiguous and ironic meaning, since these pieces formally reproduce the delicate neck of a violin, thus giving it a new function that, however, is not so far removed from its essentially tactile relationship with the user.

I take as a point of reference the existing friar armchair in El Greco's house , dispensing with the leather trim and geometric carvings. He designed a chair with similar volumes but defined by a metallic structure without ornaments , leaving the arms in wood as a relic reference to the past.

Apart from the ornamental elements, the traditional "Frailero Armchair" shares its structural simplicity and the use of walnut wood with the piece in question. However, it must not be forgotten that the monastic simplicity of the furniture was imposed by the functionality that was required of the piece. Thus, the leather of the seat and backrest were flexible and without armor in order to allow folding and, sometimes, even disassembly, and the armrests were straight and flat, although they were usually finished off in a more or less developed volute. which constituted, as has been said, the transgressive element that personalizes the piece.

The author of this marvelous piece, Mr. José Luis Pérez Ortega studied architecture at the University and graduated from the School of Arts and Artistic Crafts specializing in Interior Design. He later moved to Milan where he graduated as an Industrial Designer, from the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, being a student of Bruno Munari . He collaborates with the architect Gianfranco Frattini in his studio in Milan, and with the extinct manufacturer of high-quality furniture "Bernini" he developed architecture, interior design and industrial design projects.. "I wanted to know the industrial process and see all the manufacturing phases, from the moment the raw material enters, until the finished piece of furniture appears" says Mr. José Luis Pérez Ortega. For a year, he worked on the development of furniture prototypes for architects with Carlo Scarpa in the Ghianda prototype workshop in Milan , later returning to Madrid where he created his own studio dedicated to industrial design and interior design. During his period in New York he collaborated with the Italian lighting company Artemide and the American Kron .

For Mr. Jose Luis Pérez Ortega, each order has been a personal challenge where everything from the human factor to technical conditions are important. His products oscillate between the functional and the symbolic value, they seek firmness and durability over time, communicating a certain mystery and romanticism. He has collaborated with national and international design companies such as. Artespaña ; kron; Artemide; Bernini; Akaba; DO+CE; bows; Cabanes Design; Fiora, and now together with ArtesMoble, relaunches the Frailero, an iconic design with a Spanish stamp .