Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass (Innsbruck, Austria 14 September 1917 – Milan, Italy 31 December 2007) was a 20th-century Italian architect, noted for also designing furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office wares, as well as numerous buildings and interiors — often defined by bold colours.
Ettore Sottsass
(1917-09-14)14 September 1917
31 December 2007(2007-12-31) (aged 90)
Italian
Architect
Sottsass Associati
Mayer-Schwarz Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
Early life[edit]
Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria, and grew up in Turin, where his father, also named Ettore Sottsass, was an architect.[1] The elder Sottsass belonged to the modernist architecture group Movimento Italiano per l'Architectura Razionale (MIAR), which was led by Giuseppe Pagano.
The younger Sottsass was educated at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin and graduated in 1939 with a degree in architecture.
After the invasion of Italy by the Anglo-Americans, Sottsass enlisted in the Monterosa Division, a division of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana led by Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party, to fight in the mountains alongside Hitler's army (Sottsass tells his adventures as a Lieutenant of the Monterosa Division in his autobiography "Scritto di Notte" published by Adelphi).
After his time in the military, Sottsass opened his own architecture and design firm in Milan, Italy. Here he started designing furniture and experimented with different color, patterns and shapes. His work was often associated with pop culture with his brightly colored whimsical objects. His pieces were often made out of glass and ceramic.
Valentine typewriter, Olivetti, 1969
Superbox cabinet, Poltronova, 1966
[20]
Ultrafragola mirror, Poltronova, 1970
Tahiti lamp, Memphis, 1981
Murmansk fruit bowl, Memphis, 1982
Carlton bookcase, Memphis, 1981
Malabar bookcase, Memphis, 1981
Casablanca cabinet, Memphis, 1981
Enorme phone, 1986
Miss don't you like caviar chair, 1987
Apollodoro Gallery, clock on display, seventh event The Hour of Architects, with , Hans Hollei, Arata Isozaki, Paolo Portoghesi, paintings by Paolo Salvati, Rome, 1987
Michael Graves
Memories of China collection, the Gallery Mourmans, 1996
Mandarin chair, , 1986
Knoll
Glass works for
Venini
Glass works for the CIRVA
Nuovo Milano – cutlery set designed with assistance of Alberto Gozzi in 1987 for . Won XVIth Compasso d'Oro award in 1991.[21][22]
Alessi
Twergi collection, Alessi, 1989 and it sold for 60.000.000
store, 1980
Fiorucci
showroom, Düsseldorf, 1985
Esprit
Esprit showroom, Zurich, 1985
Esprit showroom, Hamburg, 1985
Building, Marina di Massa, 1985
Alessi showroom, Milan, 1985
Wolf house, Ridgway (Colorado), 1985 with
Johanna Grawunder
Zibibbo bar, Fukuoka, 1989
Olabuenaga house, Maui, 1989 with
Johanna Grawunder
Cei house, Empoli, 1989
Bischofberger house, Zurich, 1989 with
Johanna Grawunder
Museum of Contemporary Art, Ravenne, 1992
Ghella house, Roma, 1993
Green house, London, 1993
Motoryacht Amazon Express, 1994
Golf and club resort, Zhaoqing, 1994
Malpensa Airport, Milan, 1994
Nanon house, Lanaken, 1995
Van Impe house, Sint-Lievens-Houtem, 1996 with
Johanna Grawunder
Alitalia waiting room, 1997
Bird House, Lanaken, 1998 with
Johanna Grawunder
Roppongi Island, Tokyo, 2004
Sport house, Nanjing, 2004
Guia Sambonet, Ettore Sottsass: Movili e Qualche Arredamento (Furniture and A Few Interiors), Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1985
Hans Höger, Ettore Sottsass Jun.: Designer, Artist, Architect, Wasmuth, Tübingen/Berlin, 1993
Barbara Radice, Ettore Sottsass: A Critical Biography, Thames & Hudson, 1993
Francois Barre, Andrea Branzi, etc., Ettore Sottsass, Centre G. Pompidou, Paris, 1994
Fulvio Ferrari, Ettore Sottsass: tutta la ceramica, Allemandi, Turin, 1996
Bruno Bischofberger, Ettore Sottsass: Ceramics, Chronicle Books, 1996
M. Carboni (edited by), Ettore Sottsass e Associati, Rizzoli, Milan, 1999
M. Carboni (edited by), Ettore Sottsass: Esercizi di Viaggio, Aragno, Turin, 2001
M. Carboni e B. Radice (edited by), Ettore Sottsass: Scritti, Neri Pozza Editore, Milan, 2002
M. Carboni e B. Radice (edited by), Metafore, Skirà Editore, Milan, 2002
M. Carboni (edited by), Sottsass: fotografie, Electa, Naples, 2004
M. Carboni (edited by), Sottsass 700 disegni, Skirà Editore, Milan, 2005
M. Carboni (edited by), Sottsass '60/'70, Editions HYX, Orléans, France, 2006
Ronald T. Labaco and Dennis P. Doordan, Ettore Sottsass: Architect and Designer, Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Merrell, London/New York, 2006
Sally Schöne, Ettore Sottsass: auch der Turm von Babel war aus gabrannter Erde (and tower of Babel was also made of terracotta), Wienand, 2011
Barbara Radice, Ettore Sottsass: There is a Planet, catalogue for exhibition at Triennale Design Museum, Electa, 2016
Francesca Zanella, Ettore Sottsass: Catalogo ragionato dell'archivio 1922–1978 CSAC/Università di Parma, Silvana, Milan, 2017
Fulvio Ferrari, Sottsass: 1000 Ceramics, AdArte s.r.l., 2017
Luca Massimo Barbero, Pasquale Gagliardi, Marino Barovier, etc., Ettore Sottsass: The Glass, Skira/Rizzoli, Milan, 2017
Gean Moreno, Ettore Sottsass and the Social Factory, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, 2020 9783791358826
ISBN
Sottsass Associati
Sottsass design collection and other Memphis design
television interview with Charlie Rose, 29 November 2004, video.
A conversation with designer Ettore Sottsass
published by Hans Höger in domusWeb, Milan 2005.
Ettore Sottsass. Existential Design
Emeco Nine-0 by Ettore Sottsass
The Life and Times of Ettore Sottsass
Jennifer Kabat on Ettore Sottsass
STORIES OF HOUSES: Ernest Mourmans' House in Belgium, by Ettore Sottsass
DomusWeb, April 2005.
Hans Höger on Ettore Sottsass: Existential Design
Obituary in The Times, 2 January 2008
Design Museum Collection
Cooper Hewitt Collection
at the design agency TAGWERC (in English)