MARCO ZANUSO (1916 - 2001) was an Italian architect and designer best known for his inventive furniture designs using bent metal, plastic, and plush surfaces, as seen in his Lady Chair (1951). With a focus on keeping production and material costs low, Zanuso’s works were both inventive and affordable. Born on May 14, 1916, in Milan, Italy, he studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano University before working as an editor at Domus, a magazine founded by the architect Gio Ponti. The artist went on to produce works for Brionvega an Italian electronics company as well as Siemens for which he produced the Grillo Folding Telephone (1966). He notably also designed a headquarters building for I.B.M. in Milan and an I.B.M. factory in Rome. Zanuso died on July 11, 2001 in Milan, Italy. Today, the artist's works are in held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, among others.