Ettore Sottsass (1917 - )
Related: Italian design - Olivetti - Radical design - Memphis - modern architecture
Unidentified photography of Ettore Sottsass
Casablanca () - Ettore Sottsass
Biography
Ettore Sottsass (1917-) is an Italian designer of the late 20th century. He founded the Memphis Group. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Sottsass [Feb 2005]Sottsass and the Situationist International
At this point, it's perhaps illuminating to turn to a 1978 interview with Ettore Sottsass Jr who was an integral part of the milieu that formed itself into the Situationist International: 'I was always interested in ancient cultures, the Egyptian, the Sumerian, the Central American and Jewish cultures. cultures that have left traces in our memories, from magic to religion to fanaticism. Technologies of life which are not always rational, like those of the East, which progress by constant training of the body and mind'. Of course, Sottsass broke with Jorn and Debord's circle just prior to the foundation of the SI and today this Italian is best known for the typewriters he designed while working at Olivetti and the furniture he's produced with 'Memphis'! However, his attitudes are typical of those who belonged to the SI, even after the movement split into rival 'cultural' and 'political' factions. -- http://lists.village.virginia.edu/listservs/spoons/avant-garde.archive/papers/stewhome.txtSottsass in Belgium
Sottsass' work is regularly shown at the Mourmans Gallery [739 Zeedijk, 8300 Knokke, Belgium, 050/611991]. Mr. Mourmans had his house designed by Sottsass, mixing the Mourmans' passion for birds and design. The Mourmans gallery in Knokke was designed by Gaetano Pesce and is worth a visit for its own sake. This 4,400 s.f. gallery was designed in 1992-1993, and it explores a new way of exhibiting smaller scale pieces, concealing them within the gallery walls behind resin doors.Links
http://www.io.tudelft.nl/public/vdm/fda/sottsass/index.htm lots of object designed by SottsassSottsass: Glass works (1998) - Ettore Sottsass
Sottsass: Glass works (1998) - Ettore Sottsass [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Unidentified photograph of Sottsass glass works, ca. 1982 - 1983
More books
Ettore Sottsass conceived Memphis, one of the most fascinating recent phenomena in the field of furniture and object design.
In 1981 at the Milan Furniture Fair, the world of design was shattered, visitors discovered after years of rationalism a collection of strange furniture with flashily coloured plastic laminates emblazoned with kitsch geometric and leopard-skin patterns usually found in 1950s comic books or cheap cafés.
Ettore Sottsass conceived Memphis, one of the most fascinating recent phenomena in the field of furniture and object design. Memphis explored a visual language outside of the limiting canons of "good taste," blurring the boundaries between "high" or popular culture and mass-produced "ordinary" consumer goods.
In 1981 at the Milan Furniture Fair, the world of design was shattered, visitors discovered after years of rationalism a collection of strange furniture with flashily coloured plastic laminates emblazoned with kitsch geometric and leopard-skin patterns usually found in 1950s comic books or cheap cafés.