Mario Dal Fabbro

• Name — Mario Dal Fabbro • Born — 6 October 1913 • Birthplace — Cappella Maggiore, Veneto, Kingdom of Italy • Died — 20 June 1990 • Place of death — Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S. • Known for — Biokinetic wood sculptures, modernist furniture designs • Movement — Modernism • Education — Regio Magistero Artistico (Milan)

Dal Fabbro was born in Cappella Maggiore in the Veneto region of Italy on October 6, 1913. His parents were Pietro and Luigia Fiorina (Gava) Dal Fabbro. In his youth, he worked in the family furniture shop. He studied art and design at the Royal Superior Institute for Industrial Arts in Venice and the Regio Magistero Artistico in Milan and graduated with high honors from the Institute in 1935 and Regio in 1937.

• Illustration — Diagrams of service bars or tea carts on wheels, designed by Mario Dal Fabbro (published in 1949) Between 1938 and 1948, Dal Fabbro achieved recognition in Italy as an exponent of creative contemporary furniture design, designing pieces for private individuals and Milan furniture houses. He participated in the Triennale di Milano competition in 1939 and 1947 and won the Garzanti competition for the standardization of furniture. He contributed to the Italian design magazines Domus and Stile and the French architecture magazine L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui. He also served in the Italian Army during World War II. In 1948, Dal Fabbro immigrated to the United States, where he became an American citizen in 1951 and worked for 20 years as an industrial designer of furniture for Knoll and Paul McCobb and as a department head at JG Furniture in New York City and Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he resided from 1948 into the 1970s. His modernist designs were simple and practical with clean lines. In 1968, he retired from industry to become an independent sculptor, carving abstract organic forms and kinetic structures in wood. He exhibited his works at museums and galleries but never permitted them to be sold during his lifetime. The Allentown Art Museum featured thirty of Dal Fabbro's works at a 1972 solo exhibition and added several to its permanent collections. The Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts exhibited his work in 1976. His sculptures also have been exhibited at the Museum of Art, Science, and Industry in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 2012, the New York gallery Maison Gerard exhibited works by Dal Fabbro and other artists "little known outside the collector's market but whose work is important and noteworthy today." Sotheby's, Christie's, Wright, and other prominent auction houses in New York and Chicago have sold his works. In 1984, Dal Fabbro co-founded the Fairfield County Art Association in Fairfield, Connecticut. In 1986, Fairfield University honored him as Fairfield Artist of the Year. Established in 1976, this award has gone to artists and performers like Willem de Kooning, Gabor Peterdi, Brian Torff, Nicholas Rinaldi, and Tina Weymouth.

Dal Fabbro married Allentown native Helen Rose (Dell Antonia) Dal Fabbro in Italy on May 9, 1944. The couple had one daughter. He retired to Fairfield, Connecticut, and died in Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on June 20, 1990, at the age of 76. He was interred at the historic Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield. Helen Dal Fabbro, who had died in July 1989, shared a burial plot with her husband.