Tag Archives: ettore sottsass

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Sketch Chest of Drawers By Malabar

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sketch chest of drawers by malabar
All Images Courtesy of Malabar

Truly blending the worlds of furniture and art in a clear tribute to designer / architect Ettore Sottsass, the rule-breaking creative team at Malabar has designed this versatile piece of art furniture: the Sketch Chest of Drawers.

sketch chest of drawers by malabar

Sottsass was a member of the Italian design collective — inspired by the popular art movements at the time, Art Deco and Pop Art — known as The Memphis Group; a riotous rejection of sensible modernism whose debut collection caused a sensation at Milan’s 1981 Salone del Mobile. Known for its bright and bold furniture design style, The Memphis Group continues to inspire artists and create  trends in interiors and furniture.

If you’re unsure whether it’s a shelving unit, a room divider, or art, well, that’s the point. With a rich palette and mix of Verde Guatemala and Rosso Levanto marbles, polished and brushed brass, and walnut, black stained ash wood, and Tanganyika wood leaves, this handcrafted chest of drawers is like a sketch infusion of Memphis’ DNA.

The Sketch chest of drawers will bring an abundance of  joy into the design of your personal space. 

sketch chest of drawers by malabar

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Ettore Sottsass, Cabinet No. 56

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ettore sottsass cabinet no 56 photo by gail worley
All Photos By Gail

Ettore Sottsass’ late furniture for Gallery Mourmans liberated the artist from the ordinary constraints of the market and quantity. The collaboration gave him license to pursue the vast poetic and sculptural potential of perhaps his favorite of all design archetypes, the Cabinet.

ettore sottsass cabinet no 56 photo by gail worley

As with Cabinet No. 56 (2003) these pieces read as prototypes, concepts and sculpture. Each cabinet in this series is a study in materials, structure, form, color, and visual and sculptural effects — homages to his friends and design masters.

ettore sottsass cabinet no 56 photo by gail worley

Photographed in The Met Breuer in NYC as part of the 2017 – 2018 Exhibit, Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Ziggurat Black Stripes Storage Boxes By Oeuffice

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Ziggurat Black Stripes Storage Boxes
Photo By Gail

The research laboratory called Oeuffice was estalished by Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte and Jakub Zak to develop innovative objects in limited editions. The designers met in Milan after studying in their native Canada and attending university in Berlin. Like Ettore Sottsass, they share a vision of a contemporary utopia in which they refashion architectural design on a domestic scale. The Ziggurat, an iconic architectural form that Sottsass revered, provided inspiration for this stack of Wooden Storage Boxes inlaid with acrylic and solid stained wood (2012). The ziggurat’s form and masterful wood inlays originate in the Near East and were executed by Lebanese artists specialized in the technique.

Photographed in the Met Breuer in NYC.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Kyoto Table By Shiro Kuramata

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Kyoto Table
Photos By Gail

Born in Tokyo in 1934, Shiro Kuramata studied at the city’s polytechnic high school and Kuwsawa Design School. He revolutionized design in postwar Japan by considering the relationship between form and function, adhering to minimalist ideas but embracing surrealism as well. During the 1970s and 1980s, Kuramata began to use new technologies and industrial materials. He was inspired by Ettore Sottsass and joined the Memphis Group at its founding in 1981.

Kyoto Table Detail
Kyoto Table, Detail

The Kyoto Table (1983) is an example Kuramata’s innovative use of concrete and glass to create minimalist form with surface interest. Kuramata’s furniture and interiors have been influential both is his native country and abroad.

Photographed in the Met Breuer in NYC.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Cabinet De Curiosité By Shiro Kuramata

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Cabinet De Curiosite 2
All Photos By Gail

Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991) a member of The Memphis Group and among the most innovative designers of the late twentieth century, was fascinated by the visual possibilities of acrylic. The artist stated that his ideal objective was to see objects floating in air. Named for the Wunderkammern owned by Renaissance princes that displayed natural and man-made curiosities, Cabinet De Curiosité (1988) offers the magical impression of suspending its contents in midair. Kuramata explored the phenomenological effects of acrylic — light and lightness, invisibility and reflectivity, weight and weightlessness – and the material has become the poetic signature of his work. Kuramata used the term Neiro, or “sound-color,” to describe the synesthetic effect that acrylic has it both its physical presence and the spectral color-shadows it casts as light passes through it. Its prismatic luminosity changes with light and viewpoint, exploiting the optical effects of the material. Shown here alongside Flower Vase #3 (1989).

Photographed in the Met Breuer in NYC.