Cartier Design Viewed by Ettore Sottsass

Throughout his illustrious career in product design and architecture, Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007) maintained a close relationship with printed matter, designing, authoring, illustrating and editing a great many avant-garde literary and design/architectural books and periodicals from 1947 right up until the year before his death. Books by Ettore Sottsass organizes this vast body of work into eight phases: the 1962 Beat magazine Room East 128.Chronicle; books by poets Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen and Sottsass himself, published under the Editions East 128 imprint; the psychedelic magazine Pianeta Fresco, which printed Beats alongside emerging comic artists; work for architecture and design magazines; Sottsass' own theoretical writings; catalogues produced for the Memphis Group; the magazine Terrazzo (1988-1995), which synthesized Sottsass' love of design, literature and architecture; and publications for his own Studio Sottsass Associati.

In an increasingly design-conscious age, this series provides succinct and elegant introductions to the work of a varied roster of leading 20th century designers, graphic designers and architect/designers. This series examines critically and readably the visual forms and visual values that constitute the landmarks on our cultural map of the last 100 years. This book looks at the work of Ettore Sottsass who encapsulates the glamourous Italian achievement in design since World War II. Trained as an architect, he became famous as Olivetti's house designer, creating their legendary typewriter in the 1950s, and composing a comprehensive, indivisible office design strategy that brought us the co-ordinated office look so pervasive today. In 1980, he gave up orthodox modern corporate design to launch the avant-garde Memphis group, whose post-modernist fantasy furniture in primary colours and harsh shapes acquired worldwide notoriety. In this book, Jan Burney traces the paradoxical career of a man nurtured by Italian business' reverence for design who rejected the system that forged him, in order to make utopian, impractical design reality.

Ettore Sottsass (Innsbruck 1917- Milano 2007). His long career and his strange objects are here described.From the long collaboration with Olivetti firm and the Memphis Group he founded in 1981, symbol of the so called New design .

The original designs are not displayed, but are featured in the scenography as huge photographic enlargements that, for Ettore Sottass, conjure up the "idea" or "thought:" behind the object. Nevertheless, he felt it was important that the catalogue reflect the jeweler's graphic world. this book contains a selection of designs chosen in synergy with the layout of the exhibition. The combination of actual-size reproductions with enlargements makes it possible to see the act of creation, circumscribed by the ratio of I and the correct proportions it generates, in close relation to the graphic or pictorial technique, which monumentalizes the object or piece of jewelry - thereby mirroring Ettore Sottass' architectural vision. The pieces chosen showcase production drawings that illustrate the unique relationship between design and material. All designs reproduced here are from the Cartier Paris Archives.

Ettore Sottsass once took 1, 780 photographs on a 12-day trip to South America, and for years he photographed every hotel room in which he had slept with a woman. Wherever he goes, this world-renowned artist, architect, industrial designer, publisher, theoretician and ceramicist carries a camera to photograph anything that catches his relentless and acute eye: doors, temples, kitchens, billboards, people, trees, graffiti, fruit--nothing escapes him. This substantial volume contains over 400 of Sottsass' color and black and white images, beautifully reproduced. Several of these works are from his 1972-1978 Metaphor series, in which architecture is featured as a backdrop and support to human existence.

The encounter between the two creators featured in this exhibition, Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, was magical. When Kuramata received a letter from Sottsass asking him to join Memphis, he was so elated that he said, I got a love letter from Sottsass! Sottsass also said in an interview, I thought Kuramata was someone special. It was like lovers from Brazil and New Guinea. Have you ever fallen in love? Its similar to that feeling. Their interaction began in 1981 with Memphis, a project that had tremendous impact on the design world. The exhibition focuses on 1981, the year that Kuramata and Sottsass met, and explores their philosophies and spirit through their work. It also provides us with an overall view of design from the 20th to 21st century, as well as showing us a vision of the future. Texts by Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, and biographies of both Kuramata and Sottsass are included.