Ettore Sottsass : a true design anthropologist
Born in 1917 in Innsbruck, Ettore Sottsass graduated from the Polytech University of Turin in 1939 with a degree in architecture. He first explored abstract and figurative artworks and then become a strong participant to many collective design movements such as Global Tools, Memphis and Terrazzo. During his formation Sottsass travelled to many places from where he would later draw numerous inspirations. Thus, he discovered America and its pop Culture and frequently stayed in Asia, India, Nepal. Just like an anthropologist who study the human body, Sottsass always analyzed his environment and took numerous pictures of the houses, objets, tools he saw. The more simple the place was, the more interested it was for him to study it.
Karl Lagerfeld's Monte Carlo apartment in the early 1980s decorated with Ettore Sottsass furniture.
© Jacques Schumacher
In 1956 Sottsass met the designer George Nelson, this encounter is a key moment for him as he discovered alongside him the use of bright colours which was unusual in the dominant grey and dark post-war style dominating Milan at this time. The Italian artist also draw his inspiration from the the American popular culture environment and its elements such as neon signs. His colorful inspiration also came from his trip in India in 1960 which deeply marked him and his artistic vision.
Bright colours characterized the multiple artworks of the artist such as the iconic “Valentine” typewriter created in collaboration with the Olivetti company or his impressive flashy sculptures. The austrian architect Hans Hollein, also part of the Memphis movement, wrote one day that “without Sottsass, our life would be colorless”. Sottsass’s design was simultaneously futuristic, modular and colorful.
Ettore Sottsass and Olivetti - Valentine Typewriter - 1969
©Sotheby’s Art Digital Studio
E.Sottsass doesn’t only express colours through his furniture pieces but also in with his architectural projects. Indeed he used them to separate spaces, volumes and functions. All over the world, with the Casa Wolf at Ridgway in Colorado, the Black House in Zurich or Casa Yuko in Tokyo, Ettore Sottsass imagined buildings composed of innovative structure and bright colors giving them a poetic dimension. The architect also liked to combine multiple materials ranging from ceramics to glass, lava, Japanese lacquer, wood and so on.
Ettore Sottsass - Casa Wolf, Ridgway (Colorado, USA) - 1987
E.Sottsass created utilitarian objects such as libraries but also many decorative elements such as ceramic pieces characterized by the use of differents colorful in distinctive parts assembled together to create sculptures often tall and impressive. Vases are also recurring in E.Sottsass’s creations but it is approached by the designer more as a sculpture and decorative object than a pure utilitarian piece. These sculptures reflect the early inspirations of the artist, mixing the American pop culture characterized by the use of bright colours and shapes reminding him the totemic Indian sculptures discovered during his youth. This harmonious combination of singular influences from different continents are making Ettore Sottsass artworks so unique and recognizable.
Ettore Sottsass (executed by Bitossi / Montelupo, Italy) - Mini Totem Series - 1995/96 (designed in 1963).
© Paddle8
In 1970 Sottsass created for the Poltronova the famous grey furniture (Mobili Grigi in Italian) series in fiberglass which aims to represent a new way of living, far from the bourgeois style. Under the impulsion of Sottsass, the Memphis Movement gathers from 1981 to 1987, looking for a real breakthrough in this field. This movement, composed of designers such as Marco Zanini, Martine Bedi, Michele De Lucchi, Aldo Cibic etc…, is characterized by strong forms and aesthetic prevailing over the function of the objects.
Ettore Sottsass
Interior from the Mobili Grigi series including the
Ultrafragola mirror and Elledue bed,1970.
Materials used by the Memphis designers are mainly industrial ones such as plastic, contrary to the bourgeois style using noble materials. Within just 6 years E.Sottsass and the Memphis Movement had changed the history of design which is now divided into pre and post Memphis. This movement and Sottsass artworks are not only decorative and aesthetic but represent a truly anthropological project grounded in social and cultural inspiration.