Artist 101
Ettore Sottsass
Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass is best known as the founder of the Memphis Group, who produced riotously colourful furniture in the 1980s, but this polymath was also the creative force behind a multitude of design innovations throughout the 20th century.
Here, we trace the highlights of Sottsass's prolific career—illustrated highlights sold at bonhams.
1. Beginnings
Ettore Sottsass was born in 1917 in Austria. The son of a distinguished Italian architect, it was decided early on that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, and the family moved to Turin so Sottsass could study architecture at the prestigious Politecnico di Torino.
In 1939, almost immediately after graduating, Sottsass was drafted into the Italian Army and spent most of the war in a Sarajevo concentration camp. When he returned, he embarked on his architectural career, working on building projects with his father. However, it wasn’t long before the young creative was seeking out new challenges.
In 1946, Sottsass moved to Milan, where he set up his own architectural and design practice. ‘The Studio’ gave him the freedom to begin exploring different media and experimenting with a radical design language. Following a formative stint with the American designer George Nelson in New York in 1956, Sottsass was ready to start a revolution in Italian industrial design.
2. Rise to fame
When he returned from the United States, Sottsass’s versatile design skills were in demand by manufacturers. He was invited to design furniture for Poltronova and became design consultant for Olivetti’s new electronics division in 1958. There, he worked at the cutting edge of technical innovation, while developing his signature style of injecting joy and surprise into mundane objects.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Sottsass’s output was prolific as he worked on myriad design projects, collaborating with leading creatives and commercial brands. His aesthetic became more experimental and postmodern. By the late 1970s, he was part of an avant-garde furniture design group, Studio Alchimia.
Perhaps the defining moment of Sottsass’s career came one evening in December 1980, when he gathered a group of like-minded designers at his apartment in Milan. As the friends shared ideas and sketches, a movement was born—they called themselves the Memphis Group. For the next seven years, they produced daring, provocative designs that rejected the functionalism of their predecessors, following Sottsass’s imperative that design should be “sensual and exciting”.
3. Iconic designs
Sottsass’s insatiable creativity found its outlet across an array of media and on every scale, from ornaments to architecture. Here, we celebrate a small selection of designs from his vast oeuvre.
Glass
Sottsass had a lifelong fascination with glass. He created his first vase in 1947, and continued working with glass at CIRVA (International Center of Glass and Plastic Arts) in Marseille until his death in 2007. Some of his finest and most ambitious designs were produced for the Murano glass manufacturer Venini, spanning vases to ceiling lamps.
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Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), Coppetta, Funghetti, Vasetto – for Venini, from the edition of 97, 1997. Sold for US$1,530 inc. premium.
Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), Coppetta, Funghetti, Vasetto – for Venini, from the edition of 97, 1997. Sold for US$1,530 inc. premium.
Furniture
For Sottsass, furniture need not take itself too seriously, and his designs rebelled against the so-called ‘good taste’ of functionalism. As early as the 1960s, he played around with themes that would define the Memphis Group two decades later: his Superbox cabinets proclaim his love of bold colours, cheap materials, and a certain kitschness. In the 1980s, these preoccupations found expression in the most famous Memphis designs: the Casablanca cabinet and the Carlton room divider, both from 1981.
Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), Custom Table, 1989. Sold for US$19,125 inc. premium.
Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), Custom Table, 1989. Sold for US$19,125 inc. premium.
Electronics
Sottsass’s work in electronics showcases the power of collaboration. Alongside researchers at Olivetti, he designed the first Italian mainframe computer, the Elea 9003, which won the won the Compasso d’Oro in 1959. Ten years later, he joined forces with the British designer Perry King to create the Valentine portable typewriter, turning the humble object into a work of Pop Art. In 1986, Sottsass brought his characteristic whimsy to the Enorme telephone, designed with David Kelley.
Architecture
While Sottsass made his name in industrial design, he never abandoned architecture and returned to the discipline in earnest in the 1980s. With a reputation as one of the most exciting Italian designers of the era, he was chosen to create the interior of Fiorucci’s legendary New York store, as well as showrooms for Esprit and Alessi, and Malpensa Airport near Milan in 1994. This March, we are offering a rare custom window by Sottsass, created for the Mayer-Schwarz Gallery, Beverly Hills.
4. Legacy
Sottsass is celebrated as a pivotal figure in 20th century design, whose influence can be seen across the spectrum of Western material culture, from Steve Jobs’s iMac to Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Vegetal chair. As the century drew to a close, Sottsass was awarded the Sir Misha Black medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to industrial design.
Sottsass had two major surveys during his lifetime: at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2006 and London’s Design Museum the following year. On the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2017, the Met Breuer museum honoured the late designer with the retrospective Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical.
Today, Sottsass’s works feature in the permanent collections of institutions around the world and continue to inspire a new generation of designers.
5. On the Market
“Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group at large have often been collected by the design cognoscenti, but his work has gained a larger audience in recent years—in the United States, Europe and Asia—thanks to a resurgence in interest for works from the 1970s, 80s and 90s,” says Jason Stein, Director of Modern Decorative Art & Design in Los Angeles.
In the past three years, Bonhams has achieved impressive results for Sottsass across our global auction rooms, including a 1950s rare mirror in London (sold for £15,062.50), a Mobile Giallo chest of drawers in Los Angeles (sold for $11,475) and—most recently in 2022—a glass Firenze ceiling lamp for Venini in Paris (sold for €9,945).
“While many of Sottsass’s iconic works are still in production today, our current offering presents a rare opportunity to acquire custom vintage works by the designer,” adds our specialist.
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Browse all lots in our upcoming auction, featuring iconic pieces by Ron Arad, William Morris, George Nakashima and more. For enquiries, contact Jason Stein on jason.stein@bonhams.com
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