Ettore Sottsass 1947 - 1974

ETTORE SOTTSASS 1947 - 1974

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Ettore Sottsass

by Simon Andrews Ettore Sottsass Jr. (1917-2007) endures as one of the most significant, versatile and influential architect-designers of the twentieth century, whose intuitive capacity for innovation and expression was able to define the emotive capacities of communication through form. Fluently skilled across all media, from architecture to craft, from photography to jewelry, the diversity of his oeuvre consistently delivers meaningful structures that are guided by thoughtful metaphor. His work has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2006), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2017), the Triennale Museum, Milan (2017-18), and most recently the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2021-22).

Born in Habsburgian Innsbruck to an architect father originally trained under the Viennese Successionist Otto Wagner, Sottsass’ was to be a life of discovery and investigation that paralleled the migrations of a modern society now internationalized. His early years as an adolescent and student in Turin were followed by wartime postings to the isolated mountains of Yugoslavia, initiating a respect for the thoughtfulness of the region’s vernacular craft. His 1949 marriage to the literary intellectual Fernanda Pivano brought introduction to the great modern American writers — first Hemingway, and later Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs — establishing a transatlantic cultural bridgehead that would soon lead to a residency working in George Nelson’s design office in New York in 1956. He sought out the pioneering gallerist Betty Parsons, whose gallery on 57th Street presented works by the new avant-garde, to include Pollock, Kelly and Rothko, and she agreed to try to sell his abstract drawings. Those brief months absorbing the effervescence of this modern city served as a touchstone for Sottsass — liberating creative certainty upon his return to Italy.

Exhibited at Milan’s Il Sestante gallery, Sottsass’ 1959 series of glazed ceramic Tondo celebrated wildly gestural marks and splashes of color that aligned with the intuitive energy of the Abstract Expressionists he had encountered two summers before. However, Sottsass’ interest was not merely stylistic — it was the experimental capture of wordless emotion or abstract energy, now in the reverential form of a sacred dish. For another series of Tondo designs around the same period, Sottsass emphasized ambient colorfields that evoked both the stripes and geometries of Ellsworth Kelly, or the resonant, meditative introspection of Rothko’s canvases. The designer had discovered within himself a capacity for visual communication that immediately set him apart from the consumerist interests that served mainstream retail. Emboldened, Sottsass evolved to interpret and adapt both shape and pattern now united as essential components not only of projects and commissions, but also for textiles, ceramics, metalwork and furniture design. Manufactured by Poltronova from 1958 until around 1964-65, this first generation of new furnishings employed grids, circles, cubes and rectangles both to enclose pattern or color, and to structure the essential form. There was clear echo to the early modernism of Josef Hoffmann, and to the Viennese gesamtkunstwerk of Sottsass’s Austrian heritage. Belied by their superficial simplicity, these clever furnishings aspired to deliver ambient, unobtrusive qualities to an interior.

As the 1950s folded into an optimistic new decade, two seemingly unconnected events crystallized, inaugurating within the designer a certainty of vision that had until then only been tentatively felt. In 1958 Roberto Olivetti approached Sottsass with, at the time, what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime — to assist with the design of one of the company’s first mainframe computers, the ELEA 9003. Enhanced by punctuations of color and of monumental, totemic form the computer’s casing became a major sculptural presence in the office environment and was to serve as a conceptual template for Sottsass’ later ‘radical’ furniture. The ELEA would eventually metamorphose into myriad permutations of monolithic yet spiritually resonant objects that soon included the Superbox, Totems and Grigi of the late 1960s, the consolidated living environments created for MoMA in 1973, and eventually the seminal Memphis designs of the 1980s. Through contacts made at Olivetti, Sottsass was also to undertake domestic commissions, including the two definitive interiors created for Nicola Tufarelli in 1959 and 1965, and the Milan apartment of Mario Tchou, 1961. These important interiors — both created for friends — provided Sottsass with the opportunity to deliver sincere environments that were fully holistic, fusing detail with service while invested with metaphor.

The second incident around this period was to prove more traumatic, yet no less influential. In 1961 Sottsass and Pivano toured India, Ceylon, Nepal, Burma and Thailand. The sensory, reverential culture of these environments proved inspirational, as did the absence of the consumerist materialism that was by now systematic throughout Europe and the US. Returning to Italy, Sottsass fell critically ill and with the support of Roberto Olivetti secured experimental treatment at Palo Alto, California in May 1962. The weeks spent in hospital, his senses dulled by cortisone and unable to sleep were to have a defining impact upon him — prompting introspection upon his role as a designer whilst at the same time immersing himself in eastern philosophies and stories of ancient cultures. This difficult period was to stimulate what would, upon his return to Milan in December 1962, evolve into a defining sense of certainty regarding the objectives and responsibilities of a designer’s duties to society. His recovery in California was also important for his exposure, throughout the summer and early autumn of 1962, to the emerging counterculture by now evolving in San Francisco — a period during which he met both Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg, took photographs, produced collages, and printed his own improvised magazine, East 128 Chronicle. For those desperate, difficult months in California he was in exactly the right environment, and of responsive frame of mind, to now absorb with steely determination the anti-materialism of the emerging counterculture, and to reflect upon its translation towards a European audience.

Within months of his return to Milan, the impact upon Sottsass of both his recovery and of the American counterculture and Pop Art were immediately visible. His first major exhibition, in May 1963, was Ceramiche delle Tenebre (Ceramics of Darkness) — a hypnotically moody collection of standardized cylindrical vessels that drew unmistakable reference to Warhol’s Soup Cans, first exhibited the previous July at the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles. A Pop intent integrated into his designs for furniture — the Poltronova collections of 1965-66, within which the functionalist, color-coded performance of an Olivetti computer cross-pollinated with Pop to monumental, resonant effect. The branding that Sottsass agreed with Poltronova was both specific and resonant, accolading the works as if totemic entities — Barbarella, Lunak, or Tempus per Ingresso (Time by Entry)— and enhanced by careful photography that situated the works against the disruptive iconography of Warhol or Lichtenstein, or meditative Indian prints and soothing Chinese lanterns. The intention was clear, and the message unmistakable, and the time for change was now. This was not furniture — these were altars for the rituals of domestic life.

Perhaps more so than through any other creative participant during this crucial era of the mid-1960s, it was Sottsass who implacably guided an intelligent, sensitive and humane exchange of progressive international ideas for design and living towards European embrace. His home on via Manzoni provided a vibrant platform to a rotating cast of passing talents, an intellectual and artistic crucible that at any given time may include Chet Baker or Umberto Eco, Gio Ponti or the millionaire activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, or Allen Ginsberg, with whom Sottsass and Pivano spent the summer of 1967. But by the following summer the skies had begun to darken, as discord disrupted both cities and campuses. Perhaps change was not so easy after all. One summer later still, 1969, and Italy would plunge into the trauma of two decades of anni di piombo. Reacting to the cultural zeitgeist at which he was himself at the centre, Sottsass would close out the decade with characteristically poignant and acerbic verve — the Yantra di Terracotta and the Mobili Grigi collections would offer opposing resonances towards a parallel interpretation of meaning and assert new debate for a new decade.

Ettore Sottsass 1947-1974, Friedman Benda, NY, 2023

Entrance Table and Panel from Casa Cittone, 1947 Italian walnut, steel, glass 102.5 x 98.5 x 27.5 inches 260 x 250 x 70 cm Unique

Vase (FF no. 64 and 65), 1955 Ceramic 11 x 10 x 10 inches 28 x 25 x 25 cm Unique

Vase (FF no. 75), 1955 Ceramic 7.25 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches 18.5 x 14 x 14 cm Unique

Vase (FF no. 171), 1958 Ceramic 3.5 x 7.25 x 7.25 inches 9 x 18.5 x 18.5 cm Unique

Vase (FF no. 172), 1958 Ceramic 3.5 x 7.25 x 7.25 inches 9 x 18.5 x 18.5 cm Unique

Vase (FF no. 173), 1958 Ceramic 3.5 x 7.25 x 7.25 inches 9 x 18.5 x 18.5 cm Unique

Blue Print for Two Vases, 1959 Blue print 14.25 x 20.75 inches 36 x 52.5 cm

Blue Print for Vase (FF no. 324), 1959 Blue print 17.75 x 14 inches 45 x 35.5 cm

Blue Print for Ashtray (FF no. 319), 1960 Blue print 13.75 x 19.5 inches 35 x 49.5 cm

Blue Print for Ashtray (FF no. 321), 1960 Blue print 17.25 x 20 inches 44 x 51 cm

Cabinet, 1960 Walnut, glass and brass 35.5 x 60.25 x 12 inches 90 x 153 x 30 cm

Wall-mounted storage unit, 1960 Wooden veneer and lacquered wood structure 29.5 x 23.75 x 15.75 inches 75 x 60 x 40 cm Floor-standing unit, 1960 Wooden veneer and lacquered wood structure 23.75 x 21.75 x 21.75 inches 60 x 55 x 55 cm

Prototype for Il Sestante Vase (FF no. 348), 1961-1962 Ceramic 7 x 10.75 x 10.75 inches 18 x 27 x 27 cm

Prototype for Il Sestante Vase (FF no. 349), 1961-1962 Ceramic 2 x 8 x 8 inches 5 x 20 x 20 cm

Prototype for Il Sestante Vase (FF no. 351), 1961-1962 Ceramic 5.25 x 7.25 x 7.25 inches 13 x 18.5 x 18.5 cm

Prototype for Il Sestante Ashtray (FF no. 362), 1962 Ceramic 2.5 x 11.75 x 11.75 inches 6.4 x 29.8 x 29.8 cm

Prototype for Il Sestante Can (FF no. 410), 1962 Ceramic 4.25 x 5.75 x 5.75 inches 10.5 x 14.5 x 14.5 cm

Cabinet (Model AR. 172 Galassia), 1964 Walnut, linen 68 x 42.5 x 23.75 inches 172.5 x 108 x 60 cm

Chest of Drawers (Model AR. 172 Galassia), 1964 Walnut 44.75 x 21 x 23.75 inches 113.5 x 53 x 60 cm

Mobile (Model CS. 108 Galassia), c. 1964 Italian walnut, marble 32.75 x 42.5 x 20 inches 83 x 108 x 51 cm

Storage partition from the Tufarelli Residence, Capri, Italy, 1965 Walnut, formica, and acrylic on canvas 115.5 x 157 x 17.75 inches 293 x 399 x 45 cm

Sottsass Jr. Gian Enzo Sperone Arte Moderna, Torino exhibition poster, 1965 Offset print on paper 21.75 x 16.5 inches 55.2 x 41.9 cm

Drawing of Due Menhir e Grande Fallo, 1960s Ettore Sottsass and the Social Factory, ICA Miami, 2020

Due Menhir e Grande Fallo (da introdurre nei persuasori occulti), 1966 Ceramic 86.75 x 39.5 x 39.5 inches 220.3 x 100.3 x 100.3 cm

Prototype for Il Sestante Vase (FF no. 427), 1966 Ceramic 14.75 x 6.25 x 6.25 inches 37.5 x 16 x 16 cm

Container Hui (FF no. 670), 1968 Ceramic 7 x 7 x 5.25 inches 18 x 18 x 13 cm

Container Kua (FF no. 671), 1968 Ceramic 5.25 x 7.75 x 6 inches 13 x 20 x 15 cm

Container Shan (FF no. 669), 1968 Ceramic 7.75 x 7.25 x 4.25 inches 20 x 18.5 x 11 cm

Vase No. 635 (FF no. 747), 1969 Glazed earthenware 19 x 11.25 x 11.25 inches 48.3 x 28.5 x 28.5 cm

Yantra 17 (FF no. 762), 1969 Ceramic 12 x 16.5 x 4 inches 31 x 42 x 10 cm

Poster for “Yantra di Terracotta” exhibition, Design Center, Milan, 1969

Yantra 20 (FF no. 767), 1969 Ceramic 15.75 x 13.75 x 7.5 inches 40 x 34.8 x 19 cm

Yantra 21 (FF no. 768), 1969 Ceramic 9.5 x 9.25 x 7 inches 24 x 23.5 x 18 cm

Yantra 35 (FF no. 786), 1969 Ceramic 13.75 x 11 x 7.5 inches 35 x 28 x 19 cm

Yantra 37 (FF no. 788), 1969 Ceramic 16.75 x 10 x 8.75 inches 42.5 x 25.4 x 22.2 cm

“Elledue” Bed from the Mobili Grigi Series, 1970 Colored resin reinforced with fiberglass 28 x 86.75 x 102.75 inches 71 x 220 x 261 cm

Poltronova at Salone del Mobile, Milan, 1970

“Essetre” Bookcase from the Mobili Grigi series, 1970 Colored resin reinforced with fiberglass 72 x 35.5 x 19 inches 183 x 90 x 48 cm

Pair of Vienna Tables, 1974 Ash and lacquered wood 28.25 x 27.25 x 13.5 inches 72 x 69 x 34 cm

Ettore Sottsass 1955-1966, Frieze Masters, London, 2023

Piatto Tornito (FF no. 09), 1955 Ceramic 10.25 x 10.25 inches 26 x 26 cm Unique

Drawing of Hanging Light Ettore Sottsass: There is a Planet; Triennale Design Museum, 2017

Hanging Light, 1956 Lacquered metal, brass and perspex 15.5 x 17.25 x 15 inches 39.4 x 43.8 x 38.1 cm

Rocchetti (FF no. 265), 1956 Terracotta 12 x 5.25 x 5.25 inches 30 x 13.5 x 13.5 cm Unique

Rocchetti (FF no. 104), 1957 Terracotta 7.75 x 4.25 x 4.25 inches 19.5 x 11 x 11 cm Unique Rocchetti (FF no. 107), 1957 Terracotta 9.5 x 4.25 x 4.25 inches 24 x 11 x 11 cm Unique

Bowl (FF no. 32), 1958 Glazed earthenware 3.25 x 9 x 9 inches 8.3 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm

Opera Cosmica, 1958 Tempera and paper collage on masonite 74.75 x 6.5 inches 190 x 16 cm Unique

Tondi, 1959

Tondo (FF no. 194), 1959 Ceramic 12.5 x 12.5 inches 31.5 x 31.5 cm Unique

Tondo (FF no. 197), 1959 Ceramic 13.25 x 13.25 inches 33.5 x 33.5 cm Unique

Tondo (FF no. 217), 1959 Ceramic 13.25 x 13.25 inches 33.5 x 33.5 cm Unique

Tondo (FF no. 220), 1959 Ceramic 12 x 12 inches 30.5 x 30.5 cm Unique

Tondo (FF no. 224), 1959 Ceramic 12 x 12 inches 31 x 31 cm Unique

Drawing of Container (FF no. 327) Sottsass: 1000 Ceramics by Fulvio Ferrari, 2017

Container (FF no. 327), 1959 Ceramic 2.75 x 10.5 x 6 inches 7 x 26.5 x 15 cm

Container (FF no. 328), 1959 Ceramic 2.75 x 14.5 x 6 inches 7 x 37 x 15 cm

Sideboard (Model MS. 120), 1959 Veneered wood, painted wood, brass 30 x 45.75 x 17.25 inches 76 x 116 x 44 cm

Tavolinos, Tufarelli Residence, Ivrea, Italy Domus no. 366, May 1960

Tavolino, 1959 Mahogany 15.75 x 35.5 x 35.5 inches 40 x 90 x 90 cm

Tavolino, 1959 Walnut 14.5 x 23.75 x 23.75 inches 37 x 60 x 60 cm

Tavolino, Tufarelli Residence, Ivrea, Italy Domus no. 366, May 1960

Tavolino, 1959 Lemonwood 14.5 x 23.75 x 23.75 inches 37 x 60 x 60 cm

Magazine Rack from the Tufarelli Residence, Ivrea, Italy, 1959 Painted plywood 61 x 20 x 5.5 inches 154.9 x 50.8 x 14 cm Unique

Bookcase, 1960 Walnut 98.5 x 23.25 x 12 inches 250 x 59 x 30 cm Unique

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 10.25 x 12.75 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 12.75 x 10.25 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 12.75 x 10.25 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 12.75 x 10.25 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 12.75 x 10.25 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 12.75 x 10.25 x .5 inches 26 x 32.4 x 1.3 cm

Untitled, 1962 Vintage print 12.5 x 10.25 x .5 inches 32 x 26 x 1.3 cm

Sideboards and Califfo Ettore Sottsass Jun. Designer, Artist, Architect by Hans Hoger, 1993

Sideboard (Model MS. 180), 1963 Veneered wood, painted wood, brass 29.75 x 70 x 19 inches 75.8 x 178 x 48.5 cm

Califfo (Model D. 84), 1964 Stained beech 25.5 x 78.75 x 31.5 inches 65 x 200 x 80 cm

Califfo (Model D. 84), 1964 Painted wood 25.5 x 78.75 x 31.5 inches 65 x 200 x 80 cm

Mobile (Model CS. 96 Galassia), c. 1964 Italian walnut, marble 38.5 x 37.75 x 21.75 inches 98 x 96 x 55 cm

Mobile (Model CS. 108 Galassia), c. 1964 Italian walnut, marble 32.75 x 42.5 x 20 inches 83 x 108 x 51 cm

Poltronova, 1965

Tempus per l’ingresso wall cabinet, c. 1965 Painted wood, stained walnut, aluminium, glass 97 x 68 x 27.5 inches 246.4 x 172.7 x 69.9 cm

Drawing of Mobile Per Pranzo, 1965 Sottsass: Poltronova 1958-1974 by Ivan Mietton, 2021

Lunak Mobile per Pranzo (Model MS. 92), 1966 Walnut, ceramic tiles 49.25 x 46.5 x 18.5 inches 125 x 118 x 47 cm

Mobile Barbarella (Model MS. 124), 1966 Walnut, laminate, anodized aluminum 51 x 43.25 x 15.75 inches 130 x 110 x 40 cm

Drawing of Mobile Barbarella Sottsass 700 Drawings by Hans Hollein and Milco Carboni, 2005

Mobile Barbarella Ettore Sottsass Jr ‘60-’70 by Milco Carboni, 2006

Mobile Barbarella (Model MS. 124), 1966 Walnut, laminate, anodized aluminum 51.5 x 43.25 x 15.75 inches 131 x 110 x 40 cm

Ettore Sottsass 1917-2007 2007 2001 2000 1985 1981 1980 1978 1973 1972 1970 1967 1965 1961 1959 1958 1956 1945 1939 1936 1929 1917

Died December 31, in Milan, Italy Opening of Memphis Remembered at the Design Museum, London, England Received title of Grande Ufficiale per l’Ordine al Merito from the President of the Italian Republic Sottsass Associati designed Milan’s Malpensa airport, Italy Announced departure from Memphis Returned to architecture at Sottsass Associati where he completed numerous industrial design projects Over 2,000 people attended the opening celebration for the first Memphis exhibition, Milan, Italy Founded Sottsass Associati Formed Memphis design collective Collaborated with Alessandro Mendini and Andrea Branzi on Studio Alchimia’s exhibition of ‘new design’ furniture at Milan Furniture Fair Founded Global Tools design school with Archizoom and Superstudio Participated in Italy: The New Domestic Landscape at Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Won the Compasso d’Oro for Valentine typewriter Art directed an ad campaign featuring the Valentine held by people all over the world Co-founded the Planeta Fresco literary magazine with Allen Ginsberg Designed pop-influenced totem ceramics and the first superbox closets coated in stripped plastic laminate.

Traveled to India for three months; became gravely ill and was hospitalized in Milan, sent to United States by Roberto Olivetti for medical treatment Launch of Elea 9003 calculator; worked on Tekne electronic typewriter Appointed as design consultant to Olivetti’s new electronics division Traveled to New York to work in George Nelson’s studio for one month Back in Italy, he was invited to design furniture for Polotronova Returned home to work for his father. Moved to Milan in 1946 to curate a craft exhibition at the Triennale Began to contribute to Domus magazine Set up his own architectural and industrial design practice Graduated in architecture from Turin University only to be called up into the Italian army. Spent most of World War II in a concentration camp Traveled to Paris with no money. Stayed in a flophouse near Gare de Lyon and survived on two cans of preserved fruit in three days Family moved to Turin so Ettore Jr. could study architecture Born in Innsbruck, Austria to an Italian father, the architect Ettore Sottsass Sr., and an Austrian mother, Antonia Peintner

Select Exhibitions 2023 Ettore Sottsass 1947-1974, Friedman Benda, New York, NY 2022-2023

A Chair and You, Muséee de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland

2021-2022

Ettore Sottsas, L’Objet Magique, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2021

Electrifying Design : A Century of Lighting, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

2019-2020

Memphis Plastic Field, Musee des Arts Decoratifs et du Design, Bordeaux, France

2020

What Would Have Been, Friedman Benda, New York, NY Radical : Italian Design 1965-1985 – The Dennis Freedman Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, NY

2019

Ettore Sottsass and the Social Factory, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

2018

Ettore Sottsass, More Gallery, Giswil, Switzerland

2017-2018

Celebrating Ceramics: 100 Years of Ettore Sottsass, Design Museum Den Bosch, The Netherlands Ettore Sottsass. Oltre il Design, CSAC, University of Parma, Italy Ettore Sottsass: There is a Planet, La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy Space Oddities: Bowie | Sottsass | Memphis, Modernism Museum of Mount Dora, Mount Dora, FL

2017

Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical, The Met Breuer, New York, NY Ettore Sottsass: Rebel and Poet, Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany Ettore Sottsass: Designer of the World, Château de Montsoreau, Montsoreau, France

Ettore Sottsass: The Glass. Le Stanze del Vetro, Venice, Italy

2015 Ettore Sottsass, Friedman Benda, New York, NY

2014 Sottsass, Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, France 2013-2015

Bangles to Benches: Contemporary Jewelry and Design, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

2012

Ettore Sottsass, A Survey: 1992-2007, Friedman Benda, New York, NY Ettore Sottsass: Keramik (Ceramic), Hetjens-Museum Dusseldorf, Deutches Keramikmuseum, Dusseldorf, Germany

2011

Postmodernism, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, Japan Enamels 1958, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2010

European Design Since 1985, Shaping the New Century. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Un Piccolo Omaggio a Mondrian, Friedman Benda, New York, NY

2009

European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

2008-2009

Homage à Ettore Sottsass, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

2008

Ettore Sottsass Archetypes 1965-1995, Friedman Benda, New York, NY Design Cities, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul, Turkey Vorrei Sapere Perche, una mostra su Ettore Sottsass, Trieste Museum, Trieste, Italy Berlin Biennale für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin, Germany

2007

Design contre Design—Deux siècles de creations, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France Ettore Sottsass, Ghent Museum, Ghent, Belgium Ettore Sottsass New Works 2005-2007, Friedman Benda, New York, NY Ettore Sottsass A Life in Design, Design Museum, London, UK Metafore, Gallerie Enrico Formello, Prato, Italy

2006

Ettore Sottsass: Architect and Designer, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2005

Ettore Sottsass, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy

2004

Ettore Sottsass, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy Ettore Sottsass, Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, NY US Design. 1975-2000, Traveling exhibition, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN

2003

20 Years of Designs for Olivetti, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Ettore Sottsass, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Cologne, Germany Ettore Sottsass, Museo d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy US Design. 1975-2000. Traveling exhibition, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL (February-May); American Craft Museum, New York, NY (June-October)

2002

Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

2001

Memphis Remembered, The London Design Museum, London, England

2000

Museum of Modern Art, Gifu, Japan Suntory Museum, Osaka, Japan Marugame Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

1999

Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea L. Pecci, Prato, Italy Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands Niitsu Art Forum, Niigata, Japan Living Design Center Ozone, Tokyo, Japan

1997

Gallery Binnen, Amsterdam, Netherlands Designed for Delight. Alternative aspects of twentieth-century decorative arts, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec, Canada; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, Krakow, Poland; Die Neue Sammlung, Munich, Germany; J.B.

Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

1996

Gallery Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy Galleria Dessa, Ljubljana, Slovenia Gallery Ma, Tokyo, Japan Mourmans Gallery, Knokke, Belgium Design Gallery, Milan, Italy

1994

Ettore Sottsass: Retrospective, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Gallery Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland

1993

Ettore Sottsass: Adesso pero. Reisseerinnerungen, Deichtorhallen Museum, Hamburg, Germany La ultima oportunidad de ser vanguardia, Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany

1991

Il dolce Stilnovo della casa, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy Abitare Italia, Tokyo, Japan Energieen Exhibition, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1990 Memphis 1981-1988, Traveling exhibition: Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1989

Yamagiwa Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan

1988

Bharata, Design Gallery, Milan, Italy

1987

Ettore Sottsass: Furniture for the Ritual of Life, Blum Helmann Gallery, New York Documenta 8, Kassel, Germany

1986

Caravelles, Museé Saint-Pierre art contemporain, Lyon, France Design Since 1945, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

1985

Ceremonial Lights, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel XVII Milan Triennial, Milan, Italy Golden Eye: An International Tribute to the Artisans of India, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, NY

1983-84

Design Since 1945, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

1982

Materialidea, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

1981

Axis Galley, Tokyo, Japan

1980

Forum Design, Linz, Austria

1978

Venice Biennial. Venice, Italy

1976

MAN transforms, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, NY Ettore Sottsass Jr. De l’objet fini à la fin de lobjet, Musée des Arts décoratif, Paris, France Design Zentrum, Berlin, Germany Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy Centro de Diseño Industrial, Barcelona, Spain The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Visual Art Board, Sidney, Australia

1975

Architectural Studies and Projects, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1972

The New Domestic Landscape, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1969

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Paesaggio per una pianeta fresco, Sverige Arckitecturmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden Ceramiche tantriche, Galleria la Nuova Loggia, Bologna, Italy Ceramiche di fumo, Galleria il Sestante, Milan, Italy

1968

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands Design Center, Milan, Italy

1967

Ceramiche sbagliate, Poltronova, Italy Ettore Sottsass Jr. La Bertesca, Genoa, Italy Menhirs, Ziggurat, Stupas, Hydrant & Gas Pumps, Galleria Sperone, Genova, Italy

1966

Centro Fly Casa, Milan, Italy

1965

Galleria Sperone, Turin, Italy La Casa abitata, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy Le belle ragazze, Libreria Feltrinelli, Milan, Italy

1964

Offerta a Shiva, Galleria Aquilone, Florence, Italy Galleria il Sestante, Milan, Italy Galleria Tornabuoni, Florence, Italy

1963

Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea. Bari, Italy Ceramiche delle Tenebre, Galleria il Sestante, Milan, Italy

1961

New York from Italy, Bolles Gallery, San Francisco, CA Goldsmit’s Hall, London, UK

1960

XII Milan Triennial, Milan, Italy

1958

Galleria il Sestante, Milan, Italy

1957

XI Milan Triennial. Milan, Italy Galleria il Sestante, Milan, Italy

1955

Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy

1954

X Milan Triennial. Milan, Italy

1946

VIII Milan Triennial. Milan, Italy Palais des Beaux-Art, Paris, France

Awards 2001 Honorary degree from the London Institute of Art, London, England Honorary degree in Industrial Design from the Milan Polytechnic, Milan, Italy Title of Grande Ufficiale per l’Ordine al Merito from the President of the Italian Republic 1999

Honorary degree from the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland

1997

Oribe Award, Gifu, Japan

1996

Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London, UK Award in Design from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

1994

iF Award Design Kopfe from the Industrie Forum Design, Hanover, Germany

1993

Honorary degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

1992

Awarded Officier of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic

Select Museum and Public Collections The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, UK Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Design Museum, London, England Design Museum, Ghent, Belgium High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver, CO Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway M+ Museum, West Kowloon, Hong Kong Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Montreal, Montreal, Canada Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Sydney, Australia Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, OK Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA RISD Museum, Providence, RI St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK Vitra Design Museum, Weim am Rheim, Germany

Ettore Sottsass 1947 - 1974

Published by Friedman Benda 515 West 26th Street New York, NY 10001 Tel. + 1 212 239 8700 www.friedmanbenda.com Photography by Timothy Doyon, A. Fioravanti, Erik & Petra Hesmerg, Daniel Kukla.

All content copyright of Friedman Benda and Ettore Sottsass.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Ettore Sottsass: 1947-1974, November 2 - December 16, 2023.

F R I ED MA N BEN DA