Tomás Maldonado (25 April 1922 – 26 November 2018) was an Argentine painter, designer and thinker, considered one of the main theorists of

design theory Design theory is a subfield of design research concerned with various theoretical approaches towards understanding and delineating design principles, design knowledge, and design practice. History Design theory has been approached and interp ...

of the legendary Ulm Model, a design philosophy developed during his tenure (1954–1967) at the Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung – HfG) in Germany.''Ulm School of Design , HfG Ulm Archive''
/ref>Lindinger, H., (1991), ''Ulm Design: The Morality of Objects'', Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Early life

Born in the Argentine city of Buenos Aires, Maldonado's artistic formation took place at '' Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón''.

Career

The early years

In this early period he was involved with the Argentine

Avant Garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

s, in fact, he was one of the founders of the painters' movement called ''Arte Concreto-Invención''.

The Italian experience

Between 1964 and 1967, in collaboration with his German colleague

Gui Bonsiepe Gui Bonsiepe �gɪː ˈbo˘nsɪːpe˘(born 23 March 1934) is a German designer, teacher and writer. Especially in South America and Germany, his publications are considered standards of design theory. Life Gui Bonsiepe was born in Glücksburg, a ...

he created a system of codes for the design program of the Italian firm ''

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 part of ...

'' and the department store '' La Rinascente''. In 1967 he established himself 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 ...

, continuing to teach in the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

, working almost entirely now in philosophy and criticism influenced by

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

. In one of his last essays, ''"The Heterodox"'', he claims that the role of the intellectual is to awaken or reveal the collective conscience.

The academic career

* Tomás Maldonado was professor of Environmental Design (Progettazione Ambientale) at Politecnico di Milano University. * Between 1954 and 1966 he taught at the Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung: HfG) in Germany and served as both Rector and Prorector. The leading contributor to the "Ulm Model", Maldonado oriented design education towards systems-thinking to attain a balance between science and design, and between

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

and practice, incorporating

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is consi ...

methods,

perceptual Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sense, sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous ...

theory and

, A description of the approach is his essay entitled, ''"Ulm, Science and Design"''. * In 1965 he was the "Lethaby Lecturer" at London's

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 offe ...

. The following year, he became a Council of Humanities Fellow at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

. * Between 1967 and 1970 he taught the "Class of 1913" chair at Princeton's School of Architecture (SoA). * In 1971 he was appointed to the philosophical faculty of Bologna University. Between 1976 and 1984 he worked as full professor of Environmental Design (Progettazione Ambientale) at

's Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy.RAI – Italian Public Television
* In 2012 he was granted the Konex Special Mention for his trajectory in Visual Arts of Argentina.

Selected works

Max Bill Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer. Early life and education Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmith ...

, Editorial Nueva Visión, Buenos Aires 1955 * Ulm, Science and Design (1964) * La Sperenza Progettuale (1970); Eng. trans.: Design, Nature, and Revolution: Toward a Critical Ecology (1972, 2019) *

Industrial Design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

reconsidered * Is Architecture a Text? * Towards an Ecological Rationalism * Technique and Culture, the German debate between Bismarck and

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

* The Heterodoxo (1998)

References

External links

Tomás Maldonado
at Centro Virtual de Arte Argentino (CVAA) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maldonado, Tomas Argentine painters Argentine male painters Argentine contemporary artists Design researchers Design educators Argentine philosophers People from Buenos Aires 1922 births 2018 deaths Academic staff of the Ulm School of Design Academic staff of the Polytechnic University of Milan Argentine expatriates in Germany Compasso d'Oro Award recipients Casabella editors