Ettore Sottsass, Jr. - Design London Thursday, May 2, 2024 | Phillips

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  • By Fulvio Ferrari, author of Ettore Sottsass: Tutta la Ceramica and Sottsass: 1000 Ceramics

     

    Between 1959 and 1969, Ettore Sottsass crafted a remarkable array of works for Galleria Il Sestante in Milan, marking a pivotal phase in the evolution of forms throughout his entire body of work. However, it was in 1961 that a particularly significant chapter began. Prior to this moment, Sottsass's ceramic creations predominantly featured vases adorned with vivid painterly embellishments, decorated with expressive, abstract motifs, such as grids, dots and graffiti. Colour palettes were assembled on each surface with a distinctive personal sensitivity, sometimes whimsical, sometimes symbolic, defining a wide range of chromatic expression across his ceramic repertoire. Yet, in 1961, Sottsass abandoned this method, embracing elementary, ordinary shapes and transforming them into works of unprecedented artistic expression.

     

    The present prototype 'Rocchetto' vase, for instance, references bobbins around which thread is wound or large wooden spools for telecommunication cables, that we still see along roadsides today.

     

    Along the roads between Milan and Tuscany, where he produced his ceramic artifacts, Sottsass was also fascinated by the profiles of porcelain and glass insulators found on electricity pylons. Industrial forms, such as the 'Rocchetti' or insulators were transformed into strictly monochromatic ceramics, eschewing embellishments in favour of straightforward formal expression. By abandoning the artisanal technique of wheel throwing, and instead casting, he was able to create lighter and more purely geometric ceramics.

     

    He consistently executed them in a monochromatic scheme utilising only flat industrial colours, including the blue of the present 'Rocchetto', which references the popular packaging for Italian sugar and pasta at that time.

     

    Many sketches and technical drawings for the study of 'Rocchetti' are preserved in the Galleria Il Sestante Archive. They are a testament to the considerable conceptual work that gave rise to the stark and elementary forms found later in the furniture of the Memphis collection.

     

    A pastel sketch for the present prototype 'Rocchetto' vase, model no. 484.
    Image: Il Sestante Archive-Museo Casa Mollino, Turin
    • Provenance

      Galleria Il Sestante, Milan
      Fulvio Ferrari, Turin
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Literature

      Fulvio Ferrari, Ettore Sottsass: Tutta la Ceramica, Turin, 1996, p. 91
      Fulvio Ferrari, Sottsass: 1000 Ceramics, Turin, 2017, p. 78

10

Prototype 'Rocchetto' vase, model no. 484, from the 'Rocchetti' series

circa 1961
Glazed earthenware.
11.3 cm (4 1/2 in.) high, 21.5 cm (8 1/2 in.) diameter
Manufactured by Bitossi, Montelupo Fiorentino for Galleria Il Sestante, Milan, Italy. Underside painted 484/IL SESTANTE/SOTTSASS/ITALY.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for £25,400

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
 

Design

London Auction 2 May 2024