Andrea Branzi - Ettore Sottsass - 2011

Ettore Sottsass
Curated by Patrizia Ranzo
Series directed by Andrea Branzi

Ettore Sottsass was one of the most polyhedral and revolutionary giants of design and architecture in the twentieth century, an artist capable of challenging the rigidity of modernist functionalism to introduce an emotional, sensory, and almost magical dimension into everyday objects. Born in Innsbruck in 1917 but raised in Turin, Sottsass built his career on an indefatigable anthropological curiosity, always seeking to understand the deep relationship between man and the space that surrounds him. His long collaboration with Olivetti produced absolute icons such as the Elea 9003 computer and the famous Valentine typewriter, a "nomadic" and pop object that transformed a work tool into a fashion and freedom accessory. However, it is with the founding of the Memphis Group in the Eighties that Sottsass literally destabilized the aesthetic canons of the time: through the use of saturated colors, asymmetric geometries, and inexpensive materials like decorated plastic laminate, he freed design from bourgeois “good taste,” transforming furniture and lamps into totems charged with energy and irony. In addition to furniture, his production touched ceramics, glass, and photography, disciplines he used to probe the sacred and the archaic. His architecture, as his writings and drawings show, was never merely a matter of volumes, but an exercise of thought to inhabit the world with greater awareness and chromatic joy.

Branzi A., Ranzo P..; Ettore Sottsass: The Masters of Design. Paperback, 20 x 26.5 cm, 120 pages, Italian language; Milan, 24 Ore Cultura, 2011.

The volume presents itself in excellent overall condition. Cover well preserved. Paperback firmly bound. Interior pages clean without creases or stains. An excellent copy for collectors/reference.

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