# Bean bag chair

The Sacco chair (also known as a beanbag chair, or simply a beanbag), is a large pear-shaped bag or sack (Italian: sacco) made of leather or fabric and filled with expanded polystyrene foam pellets ('beans') or a similar material. It is an example of anatomic design, as its form is determined by the user's body. The Sacco chair was designed by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro [it] in 1968, and became "one of the icons of the Italian anti-design movement. Its complete flexibility and formlessness made it the perfect antidote to the static formalism of mainstream Italian furniture of the period” according to design historian Penny Spark.
The Sacco chair was awarded the Compasso d'Oro, and is in the collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and ADI Design Museum in Milan.

## History

Sacco was introduced in 1968 by three Italian designers: Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro. The object was created in the Italian Modernism movement. Italian modernism's design was highly inspired by newly available technologies. Post-war technology allowed an increase in the processes of production by introducing new materials such as polystyrene. The idea of mass-produced goods made within an inexpensive price range appealed to consumers. It therefore created the need for a revolution in the creative and manufacturing processes.
The architect, Cesare Paolini, was born in Genoa and graduated from the Polytechnic University of Turin. Franco Teodoro and Piero Gatti, the designers, studied at the Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale per le Arti Grafiche e Fotografiche of Turin. They established their architecture firm in Turin in 1965.
Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro, inspired by their designer predecessors, came up in 1968 with the design of Sacco, the "shapeless chair". Although it was not the first design of an amorphous chair in Italian history, Sacco was the first successful product created in partnership with Zanotta. The predecessor of the product had a major design flaw. It was unable to sustain its form and never reached production. Sacco addressed that flaw with the use of leather for the exterior and carefully placed stitching. The use of leather was not coincidental, as at that time the textile was a product of national pride in Italy. The target user of the chair was the hippie community, as their non-conformist values aligned with the chair's unconventional design.
Sacco is part of the permanent collection of the most important museums of contemporary art throughout the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Sacco was part of the 1972 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York Italy: The New Domestic Landscape – Achievements and Problems of Italian Design.

## Awards

The Sacco was recognised with a M.I.A. award at the 1968 Mostra Internazionale dell'Arredamento in Monza, and received the 1973 BIO 5 award at the Biennale of Design in Ljubljana.
In 2020, exactly fifty years after the design was first overlooked by the ADI jury, failing to win the 1970 award, the Sacco chair received the Compasso d'Oro Award and was added to the collection of the ADI Design Museum in Milan.

## Collections

* ADI Design Museum, Milan
* Brücke-Museum, Berlin
* Centro Arte e Design, Calenzano
* Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
* Denver Art Museum, Denver
* Fondazione Triennale Design Museum, Milan
* Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Dunkerque
* Israel Museum, Jerusalem
* Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin
* Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf
* Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
* Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
* Musée National d'Art Moderne (Centre Pompidou), Paris
* Museo dell'arredo contemporaneo, Russi (Ra)
* Museo Omero [it], Ancona, Italy
* Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
* Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
* Museum of Applied Arts, Leipzig
* Museum of Modern Art, New York
* Museum voor Sierkunst en Vormgeving, Gent
* National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
* Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
* Powerhouse Museum (MAAS), Sydney
* Shiodome Italia Creative Center, Tokyo
* Taideteollisuusmuseo Konstindustrimuseet, Helsinki
* Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
* The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis
* Thessaloniki Design Museum, Thessaloniki
* Uměleckoprůmyslové Muzeum, Prague
* Victoria and Albert Museum, London
* Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein

## Exhibitions

The bean bag chair has been prominently featured in several exhibitions, showcasing its significance in design and art history. At the Museum of Modern Art, New York, it was included in the ‘‘Recent Acquisitions: Design Collection’’ exhibition from 1 December 1970 to 31 January 1971, and later in ‘‘Italy: The New Domestic Landscape,’’ held from 26 May to 11 September 1972. It also appeared at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in ‘‘The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943–1968,’’ from 7 October 1994 to 22 January 1995, which subsequently traveled to the Triennale di Milano (February–May 1995) and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (May–September 1995).
The Museum of Modern Art, New York revisited the bean bag chair in its ‘‘Architecture and Design: Inaugural Installation,’’ displayed from 20 November 2004 to 7 November 2005. More recently, it was featured at the Kanal–Centre Pompidou in Brussels as part of the ‘’Phantom Offices’’ exhibition, held from 23 January to 30 June 2019. In September 2019, the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris included the bean bag chair in ‘‘Architects’ Furniture: 1960–2020.’’ Lastly, it appeared at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne in Saint-Priest-en-Jarez in the ‘’Déjà-vu. Le design dans notre quotidien’’ exhibition, which ran from 15 December 2020 to 22 August 2021.

## In popular culture

Sacco often appears in the Peanuts comic strips of Charles M. Schulz.
The Sacco appears in the 1981 Italian comedy Fracchia la belva umana.
Other companies and designers have created products, DIY kits, and homemade versions inspired by the original Sacco.