Ettore Sottsass: A Legend Remembered
Over the course of six decades, legendary Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass amassed a body of work that earned him the distinction of being an innovator in a host of mediums, with architectural drawings, furniture, ceramics, jewellery and textiles being just a few of his passions. Sottsass’ work with office equipment manufacturer Olivetti, his leadership within the Memphis design collective in the 1980s and his austere, elegant sculptures are just some of the milestones within the late artist’s illustrious career.
For Sottsass, design was an opportunity to push the boundaries of what defined form and functionality. While his early work stayed true to conventional notions of design, his approach to design throughout the 1960’s and later years became something much more elevated and abstract. His work for the Memphis group – a small group of international designers – was said to be a spearhead of the postmodern wave that came during the 1980s.
The loud and bright colours, patterns and forms of the Memphis objects came from everyday materials, as well as pop culture and the civilizations that Sottsass encountered throughout his extensive travels. Pieces like the Tahiti table lamp, with its geometric shape and bright colours, became iconic entries into the designer’s extensive oeuvre. The Carleton room divider, constructed in 1981, is another example of esoteric form being used to reject more conventional design structures.
In 2017, the year that would’ve marked Sottsass’ 100th birthday, two museums are celebrating Sottsass’ work. The Met Breuer in New York City will be running an exhibition entitled Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical, opening Friday 21 July, which pays homage to the designer’s entire body of work throughout his 60-plus year career. The exhibition will present his work in contrast with both the ancient and modern objects that he drew influence from, a comparison that is meant to offer new perspectives on his work within the larger history of design.
Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical will also focus on some of the artist’s more prominent works, including five of the original industrial ceramic totems that made up the Menhir, Ziggurat, Stupas, Hydrants, and Gas Pumps (1965–66) project at the Galleria Sperone in 1967; the minimalist Superboxes (begun 1966); and the Environment— a collection of cabinets for MoMA’s 1972 exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.
The Environment, constructed within the rebellious spirit of the 1970s, steered away from the traditional architectural structures and social values that went along with home ownership, instead looking towards open-source shared spaces that were more in line with nomadic or communal living arrangements. This line of work led the way for many of the materials, concepts and techniques that were seen at the founding of the Memphis collective in 1981.
The final portion of the exhibition, entitled Masters, will draw from Sottsass’ later, lower-profile works, presenting pieces in contrast with four seminal artists and designers from the 20th century: Jean Michel Frank, Gio Ponti, Piet Mondrian and Shiro Kuramata. Frank’s “Low Table”, for example, is presented to help viewers draw connection to the work of Sottsass, who often tipped his hat to his influences in his writings.
The second exhibition running this year honouring Sottsass is currently on display at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Entitled Ettore Sottsass: Rebel and Poet, the exhibition gives an overview of roughly 30 of his consumer products, furniture designs, photographs and writings.
The showing focuses on some of Sottsass’ key pieces from earlier in his career. The Kubirolo storage cabinets (1966-67), the Mobili Grigi furniture series (1970) and the Flying Carpet armchair Teppeto Volante (1974) all touch on the intersection of free-spirited design and pop culture that Sottsass was always so keen to illuminate. The designer’s more personal and iconic style came to fruition in pieces like the Seggiolina da Pranzo (1979-80), as well as many of his objects designed for Memphis.
Ettore Sottsass: Rebel and Poet also includes bits from the large body of poetry and writing that Sottsass accumulated throughout his career, as well as photographs from the Metafore series. That collection of pictures, which was tied in with Sottsass’ continual questioning of the nature of design, showed how his interest in spirituality and metaphysical elements came to influence his work for Alchimia, Memphis and Oliveti.
While many designers view form and function as the primary shackles that bind their work, Sottsass chose to move beyond, looking instead towards more abstract ideas like alternative living arrangements and spiritual themes. Although Sottsass passed away ten years ago in Milan, his legacy lives on through these thoughtful and elaborate exhibitions.
Ettore Sottsass: Rebel and Poet is on now until Sunday 24 September 2017 at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical opens at The Met, New York on Friday 21 July 2017.
www.sottsass.it
www.design-museum.de
www.metmuseum.org
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