Ettore Sottsass for Il Sestante Pottery Bowls
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Ettore Sottsass for Il Sestante Pottery Bowls
About the Item
- Creator:Ettore Sottsass (Designer),Il Sestante (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 3.25 in (8.26 cm)Width: 5.5 in (13.97 cm)Depth: 5.5 in (13.97 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1970s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Waltham, MA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU93384958443
Ettore Sottsass
An architect, industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, Ettore Sottsass led a revolution in the aesthetics and technology of modern design in the late 20th century.
Sottsass was the oldest member of the Memphis Group — a design collective, formed in Milan in 1980, whose irreverent, spirited members included Alessandro Mendini, Michele de Lucchi, Michael Graves and Shiro Kuramata. All had grown disillusioned by the staid, black-and-brown “corporatized” modernism that had become endemic in the 1970s. Memphis (the name stemmed from the title of a Bob Dylan song) countered with bold, brash, colorful, yet quirkily minimal designs for furniture, glassware, ceramics and metalwork. They mocked high-status by building furniture with inexpensive materials such as plastic laminates, decorated to resemble exotic finishes such as animal skins. Their work was both functional and — as intended — shocking. Even as it preceded the Memphis Group's formal launch, Sottsass's iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell and radical pops of pink neon — embodies many of the collective's postmodern ideals.
Sottsass's most-recognized designs appeared in the first Memphis collection, issued in 1981 — notably the multihued, angular Carlton room divider and Casablanca bookcase. As pieces on 1stDibs demonstrate, however, Sottsass is at his most imaginative and expressive in smaller, secondary furnishings such as lamps and chandeliers, and in table pieces and glassware that have playful and sculptural qualities.
It was as an artist that Ettore Sottsass was celebrated in his life, in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 2006, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art a year later. Even then Sottsass’s work prompted critical debate. And for a man whose greatest pleasure was in astonishing, delighting and ruffling feathers, perhaps there was no greater accolade. That the work remains so revolutionary and bold — that it breaks with convention so sharply it will never be considered mainstream — is a testament to his genius.
- 20th Century Ettore Sottsass Wooden Picture Frame for Il Sestante, 1960sBy Ettore Sottsass, Il SestanteLocated in Turin, TurinEttore Sottsass grew up in Turin, and graduated in architecture from the Turin Polytechnic in 1939. In 1947, he founded his own studio in Milan. In 1956, Sottsass moved to New York where he began working in the studio of the designer George Nelson. Back in Italy, he began important collaborations with Poltronova (1957) and Olivetti (1958). From the late 60s to the 70s he collaborated with Superstudio and Archizoom Associati, as part of the Radical Architecture movement, until the founding of the Memphis group in 1981. Ettore Sottsass has been the recipient of numerous international awards and was the winner of the ADI Compasso d'Oro Award in 1959. His works are now exhibited in the permanent collections of many museums around the world. Here we have a wooden photo frame realized for Il Sestante...Category
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