The artist “inspired an explosion of
ideas in furniture and decorative arts
that rocked the Western world. ”

The Press
The Enduring Radicalism of Ettore Sottsass
Related Art Sites

Adesso peró (But Now) bookcase from the Rovine (Ruins) collection, 1992
Made by Design Gallery Milano (Milan, Italy)
Wood, stained wood, veneer, glass
82 5/8 x 67 x 19 3/4 in. (210 x 170 x 50 cm)
The Gallery Mourmans, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Photo © Santi Caleca

THE PRESS

"Ettore Sottsass is an architect/designer/artist of iconic status, yet the brash Austrian-born, Milan-based 88-year-old bon vivant remains a mystery to many. Sottsass’s career has run the gamut from designer of the famed Olivetti Valentine typewriter to founder of the Memphis Group design collective to editor of his own magazine, Terrazzo — keeping design enthusiasts worldwide guessing for over six decades now."
Dwell, May 2006

"Above all else — thanks to his pioneering blend of aesthetics, functionalism, social awareness and, of course, an almost-stereotypical Italian romanticism — Sottsass helped completely reformulate the notion of what good design could and should be."
Mark Rappolt, Modern Painters, March 2006

“The artist has long been iconic in Europe, where his work is exhibited at the great museums, and he is perhaps best known as the Memphis Man — the rebel who formed the Memphis design collaborative in the 1980s and inspired an explosion of unorthodox ideas in furniture and decorative arts that rocked the Western world.”
Bettijane Levine, The Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2006

“Such wild juxtapositions, and the mixing of different patterns and colors, gave Memphis its shock value in the early 1980's. Nathalie du Pasquier, a Memphis member, once described the movement, which lifted its name from a Bob Dylan song with a nod to Elvis's hometown, as 'a way of life, of transferring into the world of the Western home the culture of rock music, travel and a certain excess.'"
Jori Finkel, The New York Times, April 2, 2006

Cabinet No. 50, 2003
Made by The Gallery Mourmans (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
Edition of 6
Wood; natural and stained ice birch veneers
66 1/8 x 65 1/4 x 23 1/2 in. (168 x 165.7 x 59.7 cm)
The Gallery Mourmans, Maastricht, The Netherlands
© Photography Erik and Petra Hesmerg; Courtesy of The Gallery Mourmans

THE ENDURING RADICALISM OF ETTORE SOTTSASS

By Ronald T. Labaco
Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts
Curator, Ettore Sottsass

Etttore Sottsass showcases the achievements of the internationally renowned Italian architect-designer in his first major museum survey in the United States. Widely acclaimed for his groundbreaking contributions to furniture and office-machine design since the 1950s, Sottsass is equally known for his outspoken ideas against the traditional tenets of mainstream modernism and the commercialism of twentieth-century design. Sottsass is recognized as an artist, designer, architect, writer, philosopher, photographer, and social critic. The selection of pieces on view — one hundred examples of design created over the course of a career that spans more than six decades — is similarly diverse, and includes furniture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, silverwork, lighting, and product design.

He is best known for his association with the groundbreaking Memphis design collaborative of the 1980s, which influenced the look of the decade with its “postmodernist” pastiche of vibrant color and decorative pattern, unusual combinations of materials, and cultural and historical references. Sottsass’s work characteristically embraces design’s potential to communicate primal emotion through the use of color, form, and multilayered meaning. He also ranks among several architectural luminaries who played a crucial role in the resurgence of the Italian economy after World War II.

Sottsass’s highly theoretical approach to design has resulted in an eclectic body of work that refutes the traditional association of an important designer with a single, signature style. He operates on the periphery, yet he has inspired generations of young designers to both question complacency in the design community and to revitalize the notions of modernism. The enduring element of radicalism in Sottsass’s work has created a forum for debate about the changing role of design in society that continues to this day.

Carlton room divider prototype, 1981
Made by Renzo Brugola (Milan, Italy) for Memphis (Milan, Italy)
Wood, plastic laminate
77 1/8 x 74 x 15 3/4 in. (195.9 x 188 x 40 cm)
Collection of Cathie and Rick Sacho
Photo © Aldo ballo; Coutesy of Sottsass Associati

FURNITURE
In 1957 Sottsass accepted the position of art director for the newly founded Italian furniture company Poltronova. He and company owner, Sergio Cammilli, shared an interest in new combinations of art and design, and their dynamic exchange of ideas quickly made Poltronova an industry innovator. As art director, Sottsass was able to guide the company’s direction toward more artistic production. By encouraging creative expression over profit-driven initiatives, he fulfilled his personal philosophy of questioning the growing commodification of modern design.

Sottsass’s preferred means of expression is case furniture — chests of drawers, wardrobes, bookcases, and desks. These monumental forms are analogous to his architecture; and the broad, flat surfaces provide canvases for decorative experimentation. Materials such as plastic laminate, lacquer, painted metal, exotic woods, and gold leaf are exploited for their emotive potential and combined in unexpected ways. Through the provocative use of color, form, surface decoration, historical and cultural references, and multilayered meaning, Sottsass engages our perceptions and our intellect.

By aligning himself in the late 1970s with such highly conspicuous antidesign groups as Studio Alchymia and subsequently founding the Memphis collaborative in 1981, Sottsass remained at the forefront of innovation. And the elements of radicalism that characterize his work are expressed most cogently through his furniture designs.

Vase from the Ceramiche delle tenebre (Ceramics of Darkness) series, 1963
Made by Bitossi (Montelupo Fiorentino, Italy)
Unique
Glazed earthenware
9 1/4 x 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 in. (23.5 x 16 x 16 cm)
Collection Bischofberger, Zurich
Photo © Santi Caleca

CERAMICS
In 1956 Sottsass began a close professional relationship with the Italian ceramics company Bitossi, where he had the freedom to create works that blurred the boundaries between art and design. The environment allowed him to develop his ideas on the role of ceramics in modern society. He concluded that the increasingly disposable nature of the products of modern consumer culture alienated people from the objects surrounding them, and he sought a way to remedy this.

Drawing inspiration from his 1961 trip to India, Sottsass began designing ceramics that offered a spiritual solution to the pressures of daily life, both referencing and expressing Eastern beliefs — including the Tantric philosophy that even the smallest individual actions can ultimately affect the universe. In doing so he moved ceramics beyond functional utility into the realm of the spiritual world, elevating ceramic pieces, made from the most humble of materials — water and clay — into objects worthy of reverence.

Sottsass also was inspired by the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, who introduced the idea of the collective unconscious — that all humans share experiences that enable them to subconsciously recognize universal symbols and understand their meanings. Sottsass continues to use these symbols, such as the circle, to emphasize the significance of form and to communicate on a primal level. He believes that by carefully selecting the objects that surround us, we can bring a heightened awareness to our lives and make the everyday human experience more vital and pleasurable.

5 Betili vase, 1994
Made by Verto Venini (Murano, Italy)
Edition of 7
Glass
19 3/4 x 16 1/2 x 16 x 1/2 in. (50 x 42 x42 cm)
Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
Photo by Studio Pointer; Courtesy of Sottsass Associati

GLASS
Sottsass began designing glass in the early 1970s. Working alongside craftsmen in the world-renowned workshops on the Venetian island of Murano , he became enthralled by the technical virtuosity and creativity of the glassblowers. He described the process as an arcane ritual: “As in the ballet of a magic rite, the men come and go, squashing and stretching the glass, inflating and cutting it... performing an enormous number of unwavering and miraculous gestures.” For Sottsass, who characteristically introduces elements of the mystical into his work, glass provided the perfect vehicle for further artistic exploration.

In contrast to the simple, organic, modernist forms popularized by many other designers, Sottsass’s glassworks are more intricate and place greater value on color and form. His distinctive method of assembling various shapes to create a dynamic arrangement is most evident in this medium. In the mid-1980s, undaunted by traditional glassmaking conventions, Sottsass began to use glue and wire to attach elements, a technique that allowed him greater freedom of design.

This method of joining pieces of colored glass echoes Sottsass’s early (1930s) approach to painting, in which color determined individual forms within a larger composition, as well as his later (1980s) approach to architecture, in which blocks of color on a structure’s exterior corresponded to different interior rooms. Unlike the angular forms of his architecture, the soft curves of his glassworks are made possible by the fluidity of the material in its molten state.

In collaboration with Perry A King,
Valentine portable typewriter, 1969,
made by Olivertti, Oliverti S.p.A., all rights reserved,
ABS plastic, metal, rubber,
4 ½ x 13 ½ x 14 in.,
LACMA, gift of Daniel Ostroff.
Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA

PRODUCT DESIGN
In 1957 Sottsass became the chief consultant designer for Olivetti, the premier manufacturer of office machines in Italy. Although his limited technical experience and highly artistic approach to design made him an unconventional candidate to head the company’s new electronics division, he quickly proved himself worthy of the position. Sottsass’s initial project — the design for Italy’s first commercially available mainframe computer, the Elea 9003 — won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award for outstanding industrial design. The honor established his reputation internationally.

Sottsass approached the design of the Elea 9003 with a strategy that he uses in all of his product designs. Capitalizing on a design’s communicative potential, he puts himself in the frame of reference of the prospective “user” to envision the type of “dialogue” that would occur between the object and its user. For example, to create the Elea 9003 he observed the physical actions and work habits of computer operators. He recognized a growing fear of new technology in the workplace. To overcome such anxieties, Sottsass designed novel forms to house the electronic components and devised a color-coded system to aid in the computer’s operation. Thus, through the introduction of new shapes and unexpected color into the office environment, he revitalized the workplace and created a more user-friendly atmosphere.

In 1972 he began to work with the Italian housewares manufacturer Alessi to develop tableware for restaurants and homes, which helped make the company a household name. Today, Sottsass continues to develop product designs for Alessi and other manufacturers through his firm, Sottsass Associati.

Lucrèce vase, 1994
Made by Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres (Sèvres, France)
Glazed and gilded porcelain, stone
12 x 4 5/8 x 4 5/8 in. (30.5 x 11.8 x 11.8 cm)
Collection of Max Palevsky
Photo © 2005 Museum Associates/LACMA

RELATED ART SITES

The Sottsass creations and theories have influenced generations of designers. Learn about his history and see an eclectic range of works by Ettore Sottsass from LACMA's collection.

From Milan to Los Angeles , Memphis design is characterized by lively color, pattern and form. Learn more about  Memphis artworks in LACMA's collection by Los Angeles artist, Peter Shire.

View the website of Sottsass Associati.