{"id":16179,"date":"2015-10-02T01:01:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T23:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/?p=16179"},"modified":"2016-10-27T12:31:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T10:31:47","slug":"ettore-sottsass-1955%e2%80%901969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/ettore-sottsass-1955%e2%80%901969\/","title":{"rendered":"ETTORE SOTTSASS: 1955\u20101969"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have tried as best as I can to gather together the terms of a new vitality and , where and how I was able, to collect the shapes, colours and symbols that could represent the change in the images of this century from an intellectual organization to a reality that must be lived, to a kind of pure and vital energy\u201d<\/em> Ettore Sottsass, Domus Magazine, 1963<\/p>\n

On September 10, Friedman Benda has opened its eight season with Ettore Sottsass 1955-1969. The fourth in a series devoted to the expansive ouvre of the groundbreaking Italian architect-designer Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), the exhibition ten years in the making will explore the breadth of Sottsass\u2019 remarkable creativity on the early stages of his career. With a display of unique ceramics, rare furniture and lighting, and vintage photographs never before seen in the United States, the exhibition will also be the first in a newly configured exhibition space for Friedman Benda in Chelsea.
\nEttore Sottsass 1955-1969 will serve as a gateway to understading an extremely diverse and fertile 15-years period in Italian design and art, which precedes the years of Radical Design.
\nThese are the formative years for the designer who used ceramics as a laboratory for developing a new language of design. Rare ceramics on view will include work from every important series of this period and several are derived from Sottsass\u2019s memories and reflections of his travels to India, to the U.S., and from personal life experiences. Among them will be exemples of Lava (1957), Tondi (1959), and Tenebre (1963), the designer\u2019s \u201cDarkness\u201d series in somber tones with mandala-like imagery, conceived during a protracted illness. Others will be from Shive (1964), a series celebrating his return to good health with homage to the Indian deity, the great conqueror of death, and from the Tantra (1968) and Fumo (1969) series. All of these works have been exctensiverly published and collected by museums worldwide.
\nFurniture and lighting will also include major one-of-a-kind pieces: the first showing in the United States of a bookshelf made for a director of Olivetti; from slatted rosewood cabinets, one in white and one in red; and examples of mirrors and lighting designed for Arredoluce. Sottsass who worked in a variety of media, produced many of these\u00a0 works for his patrons, whice others were created as artistic expressions in his studio practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe focused on reforming the relationship between the material world and human beings by offering the world a radically new definition of modern design.\u201d<\/em> Penny Sparke, Ettore Sottsass: Architect and Designer, Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition catalogue essay, 2006<\/p>\n

September 10\u00a0– October 17 2015<\/strong><\/div>\n
Friedman Benda, New York, NY<\/strong><\/div>\n
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