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.

Early life

Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria, and grew up in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, where his father, also named Ettore Sottsass, was an architect. The elder Sottsass belonged to the modernist architecture group Movimento Italiano per l'Architectura Razionale (MIAR), which was led by

Giuseppe Pagano Giuseppe Pagano (20 August 1896 – 22 April 1945) was an Italian architect, notable for his involvement in the movement of rationalist architecture in Italy up to the end of the Second World War. He designed exhibitions, furniture and interiors ...

. The younger Sottsass was educated at the

Politecnico di Torino The Polytechnic University of Turin ( it, Politecnico di Torino) is the oldest Italian public technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning and Industrial Design, and is co ...

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.

Early career

After returning home, Ettore Sottsass worked as an architect with his father, often on new modernist versions of buildings that were destroyed during the war. In 1947, living in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, he set up his own architectural and industrial design studio, where he began to create work in a variety of different media: ceramic, painting, sculpture, furniture, photography, jewelry, architecture and interior design. Ettore Sottsass and Fernanda Pivano 1969

Ettore Sottsass and Fernanda Pivano 1969

In 1949 Sottsass married

Fernanda Pivano Fernanda Pivano (18 July 1917 – 18 August 2009) was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and critic. Early life Pivano was born in Genoa in 1917. When she was a teenager she moved with her family to Turin where she attended the Massimo D ...

, a writer, journalist, translator and critic. From 1954 to 1957 he was a member of the

International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus The International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus was a small European avant-garde artistic tendency that arose out of the breakup of COBRA, and was initiated by contact between former COBRA members Asger Jorn and Enrico Baj and Sergio Dang ...

, resigning due to the movement's perceived aggression and its lack of professionalism. In 1956, Sottsass traveled to New York City and began working in the office of George Nelson. He and Pivano traveled widely while working for Nelson, and returned to Italy after a few months. Also in 1956, Sottsass was commissioned by the American entrepreneur Irving Richards on an exhibition of his ceramics. Back in Italy in 1957, Sottsass joined , a semi-industrial producer of contemporary furniture, as an artistic consultant. Much of the furniture he worked on there influenced the design he would create later with Memphis Milano. In 1956, Sottsass was hired by Adriano Olivetti as a design consultant for

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been par ...

, to design electronic devices and develop the first Italian mainframe computer, the Elea 9003 for which he was awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1959. He also designed office equipment, typewriters, and furniture. There Sottsass made his name as a designer who, through colour, form and styling, managed to bring office equipment into the realm of popular culture. His first typewriters, the ''Tekne 3'' and the ''Praxis 48'', were characterized by their sobriety and their angularity. With Perry A. King, Sottsass created the Valentine typewriter in 1969 — considered today a milestone in 20th century design and featured in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...

, London's Design Museum as well as the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. Italy's prestigious Association of Industrial Design (ADI) awarded the Valentine its Compasso d'Oro in 1970. While continuing to design for Olivetti in the 1960s, Sottsass developed a range of objects which were expressions of his personal experiences traveling in the United States and India. These objects included large altar-like ceramic sculptures and his "Superboxes", radical sculptural gestures presented within a context of consumer product, as conceptual statements. Covered in bold and colorful, simulated custom laminates, they were precursors to Memphis, a movement which came more than a decade later. Around this time, Sottsass said: "I didn't want to do any more consumerist products, because it was clear that the consumerist attitude was quite dangerous." As a result, his work from the late 1960s to the 1970s was defined by experimental collaborations with younger designers such as Superstudio and Archizoom Associati, and association with the

Radical movement The Radical Movement (french: Mouvement radical, MR), officially the Radical, Social and Liberal Movement (french: link=no, Mouvement radical, social et libéral), was a Social liberalism, social-liberal list of political parties in France, politi ...

, culminating in the foundation of

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

at the turn of the decade. In the early 1970s he designed the modular office equipment collection ''Synthesis 45''. Sottsass and Fernanda Pivano divorced in 1970, and in 1976 Sottsass married

Barbara Radice Barbara Radice (born 29 November 1943) is an Italian design critic, writer, and editor. Early life and education Barbara Radice was born in Como, Italy, and graduated from the Catholic University of Milan in 1968. Career Radice is one of the s ...

, an art critic and journalist. When Roberto Olivetti succeeded as head of the company, he named Sottsass artistic director and gave him a high salary, but Sottsass refused. Instead he created the Studio Olivetti independent of Olivetti and became instantly the most creative international centre of design associating research with creation and industrial strategy. His concern that his creativity would have been stifled by corporate work is documented in his 1973 essay "When I was a Very Small Boy". In 1968, the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

in London granted Sottsass an honorary doctorate.

Memphis Group

With the rise of new groups (

Global tools Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

, Archizoom, Superstudio, UFO, Zzigurat, 9999...) the handmade style appeared suddenly as the new game for experimentation, a lot of these new groups playing in this new/old path to renew creation. In October 1980, Sottsass was confronted with two proposals, one from Renzo Brugola, a dear old friend and carpenter, telling him his will "to make something together like in the good old times," and the other one from Mario and Brunella Godani, owners of the Design Gallery Milano, who asked him to create "new furniture" for their gallery. Ettore Sottsass founded the Memphis Group in Milan on 11 December 1980, after the Bob Dylan song "

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" (also listed as "Memphis Blues Again") is a song written by Bob Dylan that appears on his 1966 album ''Blonde on Blonde''. The album version also appears on 1971's ''Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits V ...

" played during the group's inaugural meeting. The group was active from 1981 to 1988. The Memphis group was created in a reaction against the status quo. Sottsass centered the group's thinking around "radical, funny, and outrageous"—essentially, disregarding what was considered in "good taste" at that time. Art deco, the color palette of Pop Art and Kitsch theme from the 1950's inspired their work. Colorful laminate and terrazzo were commonly found in their work and incorporated in floors, tables and lamps. Sottsass also designed his own print. This was a squiggles print also known as Bacterio print. For the print, Sottsass used inspiration from the surface texture and form of a Buddhist temple in Madurai, India, he then abstracted this detail into the squiggles he named Bacterio. This pattern was then used on their furniture designs in as veneers and textiles. The Memphis Group was a postmodern, collaborative, architecture and design group founded by Sottsass in Milan Italy. The group focused heavily on furniture design with an emphasis on unconventional types. The designers became well known for their bright and bold pieces with clashing colors. At the time, furniture was solely meant to be functional. However, the Memphis Group sought to prove otherwise with their highly decorative pieces. They poked fun at everyday pieces and turned them into works of art. Many criticized and said it was just a trend that wouldn't last. Their unconventional ideas were controversial but have now become widely recognized and appreciated. The work continues to be influential throughout the world and can be seen in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Design Museum in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York and many others.

Sottsass Associati

BUSSTOPS Koenigsworther Platz Mitte Hannover Germany 03

As the Memphis movement in the 1980s attracted attention worldwide for its energy and flamboyance, Ettore Sottsass began assembling a major design consultancy, which he named Sottsass Associati. Sottsass Associati was established in 1980 and gave the possibility to build architecture on a substantial scale as well as to design for large international industries. Besides Ettore Sottsass, the other founding members were

Aldo Cibic Aldo Cibic (born 1955 in Schio, Province of Vicenza, Vicenza, Italy) is an Italian designer. Career By the age of 22, Aldo was working at the studio of Ettore Sottsass. In 1980, he became a founding partner of the studio Sottsass & Associati. ...

, Marco Marabelli,

Matteo Thun Matteo Thun (full name Mathäus Antonius Maria Graf von Thun and Hohenstein, 17 June 1952 Bolzano, Italy) is an Italian architect and designer. Biography Matteo Thun was born in Bolzano in 1952 as the first son of the South Tyrolean entrepreneuri ...

and Marco Zanini. Later, Johanna Grawunder, Marco Susani, James Irvine, and Mike Ryan would also join the firm. In 1985, Sottsass left the Memphis Group to focus on the Associati. Sottsass Associati, primarily an architectural practice, also designed elaborate stores and showrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan, and furniture of all kinds. The studio was based on the cultural guidance of Ettore Sottsass and the work conducted by its many young associates, who quite often left to open their own studios. Sottsass Associati is now based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

and continue to sustain the work, philosophy, and culture of the studio. The studio works with former members of Memphis as well as with the architect Johanna Grawunder. It works for major companies like

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, Siemens, Zanotta, Fiat, Alessi, and also realises the interior design of all the retail shops of Esprit (

Esprit Holdings Esprit Holdings Limited () is a publicly owned manufacturer of clothing, footwear, accessories, jewellery and housewares under the Esprit label. The company is headquartered in North Point, Hong Kong, and Ratingen (near Düsseldorf), Germany. In ...

Notable achievements in design

* ''Valentine'' typewriter, Olivetti, 1969 * ''Superbox'' cabinet, Poltronova, 1966 * ''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

Michael Graves Michael Graves (July 9, 1934 – March 12, 2015) was an American architect, designer, and educator, as well as principal of Michael Graves and Associates and Michael Graves Design Group. He was a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Gr ...

, Hans Hollei,

Arata Isozaki Arata Isozaki (磯崎新, ''Isozaki Arata''; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019. Biography Isozaki was ...

, Paolo Portoghesi, paintings by Paolo Salvati, Rome, 1987 * ''Memories of China'' collection, the Gallery Mourmans, 1996 * ''Mandarin'' chair,

Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, A ...

, 1986 * ''Glass works'' for Venini * ''Glass works'' for the CIRVA * ''Nuovo Milano'' – cutlery set designed with assistance of Alberto Gozzi in 1987 for Alessi. Won XVIth Compasso d'oro award in 1991. * ''Twergi'' collection, Alessi, 1989 and it sold for 60.000.000

Notable achievements in architecture

Fiorucci Fiorucci () is an Italian fashion label founded by Elio Fiorucci in 1967. The first Fiorucci shop exposed Milan to the styles of Swinging London and to American classics such as the T-shirt and jeans. By the late 1970s, the direction of stylistic ...

store, 1980 * Esprit showroom, Düsseldorf, 1985 * 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 * Kelley Residence, Woodside, 2000 * Roppongi Island, Tokyo, 2004 * Sport house, Nanjing, 2004 * Entry Gates of the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg Gallery at the campus of

Cal Poly Pomona California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona, CPP, or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo. See the ''name'' section of this article for more infor ...

, 1995

Other works

As an industrial designer, his clients included

, Esprit, the Italian furniture company Poltronova, Knoll International, Serafino Zani, Alessi, Brondi, and

Brionvega Brionvega is an Italian electronics company that is known for manufacturing futuristic televisions and audio equipment. The company was founded in 1939 by Giuseppe Brion and Leone Pajettain in Milan. Initially named B.P.M. Radio, the company w ...

. As an architect, he designed the Mayer-Schwarz Gallery on

Rodeo Drive Rodeo Drive is a street in Beverly Hills, California, with its southern segment in the City of Los Angeles. Its southern terminus is at Beverwil Drive, and its northern terminus is at its intersection with Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The ...

in Beverly Hills, California, with its dramatic doorway made of irregular folds and jagged angles, and the home of David M. Kelley, designer of Apple's first computer mouse, in

Woodside, California Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the United States, home to many technology billionaires and investment manager ...

. The interiors of the

Malpensa Airport Milan Malpensa Airport is the largest international airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, as well as the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The airport is northwest of Milan, next to the Ticino river dividing Lombardy and Pie ...

, in

, were designed by Sottsass in the late 1990s, but he did not architect the building. In the mid-1990s, he designed the sculpture garden and entry gates of the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg Gallery at the campus of

. He collaborated with well-known figures in the architecture and design field, including

, James Irvine,

Enorme Telephone, Ettore Sottsass and David Kelly

Sottsass created a vast body of work: furniture, jewelry, ceramics, glass, silver work, lighting, office machine design and buildings. He inspired generations of architects and designers. In 2006 the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

held the first major museum survey exhibition of his work in the United States. A retrospective exhibition, ''Ettore Sottsass: Work in Progress'', was held at the Design Museum in London in 2007. In 2009, the Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht presented a re-construction of a Sottsass' exhibition '' 'Miljö för en ny planet' (Landscape for a new planet)'', which took place in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm in 1969. In 2017, on the occasion of Sottsass' 100th birthday, the Met Breuer museum in New York City presented the retrospective ''Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical.'' One of his works—Telefono Enorme, designed with David M. Kelley for Brondi—is part of the MOMA Collection, as well as many drawings. Design objects and drawings by Sottsass are also in the permanent collections of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the Design Museum in London, the

Vitra Design Museum The Vitra Design Museum is a privately owned museum for design in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Former Vitra CEO, and son of Vitra founders Willi and Erika Fehlbaum, Rolf Fehlbaum founded the museum in 1989 as an independent private foundation. The ...

, the Brooklyn Museum, the

, the Stedelijk Museum,

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. In 2021 it ranked 10th in t ...

in Paris, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 1999, he was awarded the Sir Misha Black award and was added to the College of Medallists. In 2023, his work was included in the exhibition ''Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth'' at Chatsworth House.

Publications

* 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 * Philippe Thomé, ''Ettore Sottsass'', Phaidon, New York, 2014 * 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

References

External links

Sottsass Associati
* Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art, Ettore Sottsass: Designer of the world, Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Co

[Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art, ntemporary Art, 2017
Sottsass design collection and other Memphis design

''A conversation with designer Ettore Sottsass''
television interview with Charlie Rose, 29 November 2004, video.
Ettore Sottsass. Existential Design
published by Hans Höger in domusWeb, Milan 2005.

Design Biography

Emeco Emeco (styled "emeco®") is a privately held company based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The Emeco 1006, known as the Navy Chair, has been in continuous production since the 1940s. Today, Emeco manufactures furniture designed by notable designers and ...

The Life and Times of Ettore Sottsass

Jennifer Kabat on Ettore Sottsass

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110722032901/http://www.domusweb.it/magazine/article.cfm?id=35196&lingua=_eng Hans Höger on Ettore Sottsass: Existential Design DomusWeb, April 2005.
Olivetti official site

Obituary in ''The Times'', 2 January 2008

Design Museum Collection

Cooper Hewitt Collection

Information and pictures about the designer Ettore Sottsass Junior
at the design agency TAGWERC {{DEFAULTSORT:Sottsass, Ettore 1917 births 2007 deaths Architects from Turin Italian industrial designers Italian furniture designers Italian people of Austrian descent Olivetti people Compasso d'Oro Award recipients Royal Designers for Industry Italian design Olivetti typewriters Typewriters Product designers