Ettore Sottsass, Jr. - Moss New York Tuesday, October 16, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private Collection, New York

  • Literature

    Albrecht Bangert, Italian Furniture Design: Ideas, Styles, Movements, Munich, 1988, p. 171
    Barbara Radice, Memphis, Milan, 1984, p. 117
    Museu do Design: Luxo, Pop, Cool, De 1937 Até Hoje
    , exh. cat., Museu do Design, Lisbon, 1999, pl. 211
    Ronald T. Labaco, Ettore Sottsass: Architect and Designer, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, London, 2006, p. 67
    Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990, exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011, p. 162

  • Catalogue Essay

    Like the Casket Carrier (lot 81), the ‘Murmansk’ by Ettore Sottsass also marks a moment of stylistic transition. Designed for Memphis in 1982, the centerpiece is a conscious challenge to the Modernist credo. Its bent, shaky legs suggesting a wobbly future – possibly a collapse – of the tenants of good taste and prestigious ‘contemporary design’. The ‘Murmansk’ centerpiece is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Powerhouse Museum, Sidney.

82

'Murmansk' centerpiece

1982
Silver.
11 3/8 in (29.9 cm) high, 13 3/8 in (34 cm) diameter
Manufactured by Rossi & Arcandi, Vicenza for Memphis, Italy. Underside impressed with ‘MURMANSK/ETTORE SOTTSASS’ and side of base impressed with ‘ALVESPINTO PRATA 925’.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

Moss

16 October 2012
New York