Ettore Sottsass

Friedman Benda presents Ettore Sottsass 1947-1974, the ninth solo show in an ongoing series dedicated to the expansive oeuvre of the groundbreaking Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007). Shedding light on this far-reaching period of innovation, the exhibition provides a comprehensive view of this diverse and prolific first half of Sottsass’ career.

Among Sottsass’ earliest projects was a collaboration with his father designing a shop interior for Negozio Cittone in Turin, for which he designed one of his very first furniture pieces. Starting in the mid-1950s, Sottsass embarked on a long and fruitful exchange with Poltronova – an artisanal furniture manufacturer based in Florence, Italy. “The point should be made very clear that the aim of the project was not to create a product,” stated Sottsass, “but to state and provoke ideas.”

“Sottsass Jr. endures as one of the most significant, versatile and influential architect-designers of the twentieth century, whose intuitive capacity for innovation and expression was able to define the emotive capacities of communication through form,” independent curator and advisor Simon Andrews writes in an essay accompanying the exhibition.

As part of the gallery’s continuing commitment to survey Sottsass’ pioneering investigations across different media, the exhibition features distinct series of rare works supported by a range of original drawings and publications, serving as a gateway to understanding an extremely diverse and fertile period in Sottsass’ life. “The time for change was now. This was not furniture — these were altars for the rituals of domestic life.”