Ettore Sottsass Bookcase Model Factotum Alchimia, Italy

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Ettore Sottsass Bookcase Model Factotum Alchimia, Italy

About the Item

"Factotum" bookcase designed by Ettore Sottsass in circa 1980 and produced by Alchimia. Exhibited at the Alchimismo show to Frigoriferi Milanesi to Milan in 2012. Original label. Biography In 1976 Alessandro and Adriana Guerriero established Alchimia, the first example of manufacturing designers in Milan. In 1978 and 1979 they presented the Bau haus and Bau haus II collections. Lamps, armchairs, chairs, tables, cabinets, and so on. Artists involved: Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass, Bruno and Giorgio Gregori, Michele De Lucchi, Andrea Branzi, UFO, Paola Navone, Daniela Puppa, Franco Raggi. The prevalent decorative material is laminated plastic. Alchimia’s culture, which is against the Italian design (Casabella magazine) changes the base of all previous design theories, resulting in a profound and radical change in the mindset of architects. Visual Alphabets, Redesign, Trivial Design, Cosmetics and Sentimental Robot are the slogans underlying the exuberant and vast production of Alchimia city. In the theoretical manifesto of the group, Alessandro Mendini writes “Alchimia is not interested in disciplines because they are considered to be within their rules. Indeed, it is important to look into the existing large free spaces between them. Alchimia weighs the assumption that conception and confused production methods should coexist where craftsmanship, manufacturing, information technology, techniques and current and obsolete materials can get mixed up. “They are handcrafted objects, recycled, mass, improbable, provocative, Kitsch, all very theory-laden. It operates and experiences in many sectors: the Pensione Ideale (Franco Raggi), the Copertine di Domus (Occhiomagico), the Abito Sonoro and the performance of Persone Dipinte (Anna Gili), the Stilismo della Moda (Cinzia Ruggeri). The Neo-modern design, the new Italian design, is born. In 1981, the Mobile Infinito, due to excess, cancelled both the types and project designers, thus entering into theatrical experiment with the Magazzini Criminali. The emotional, psychological and anthropological activities expand to books, didactics, video (Metamorfosi) and sounds (Matia Bazar). Alessandro Guerriero is a founding member of Domus Academy in 1982 and in 1984, he began Nuova Alchimia under the brand Zabro. It is Aurelio Zanotta who supports this post-industrial collection. In 1992, the romantic activity of Alchimia was terminated. Today he continues his heroic adventure.

Creator:
Ettore Sottsass (Designer),Gruppo Alchimia (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 76.78 in (195 cm)Width: 24.81 in (63 cm)Depth: 18.51 in (47 cm)
Style:
Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Laminate,Wood
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1980-1989
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1980
Condition:
Seller Location:
Milan, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2140310925033

Shop All Ettore Sottsass

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.