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"A radical look at a radical designer, this book locates Sottsass's work within the larger landscape of postwar political thinking and economic change. Including newly commissioned essays by curators and scholars, this book explores how Sottsass's art and philosophy presaged the dawn of PCs, the service industry, and the gig economy. Ettore Sottsass was an architect, industrial designer, painter, writer, photographer, and founder of the Memphis group, whose designs are undergoing an impressive renaissance. But Sottsass was more than just an important designer. His approach to object design - marked by bold colours, tactility, and vitality - was a direct response to the world of mass production and the assembly-line economy. This revelatory collection of essays by leading thinkers in the fields of political theory, economics, the media, design history, and cultural theory contextualises Sottsass's work in unprecedented arguments that draw a line from his work at Olivetti to the iconoclastic designs he produced at the dawn of the 21st century. Divided into five chronological sections - from the late 1950s to Sottsass's death in 2007 - these essays are illustrated with vibrant images of his work and archival photographs. Deeply researched, the book makes crucial connections between postwar Europe and America, and the way we work and live today. AUTHOR: Gean Moreno is Curator of Programs at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, where he founded and organises the Art + Research Center. SELLING POINTS: . Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007) was one of the most important postwar Italian designers. He began his career working for Olivetti, for which he produced some of the most iconic objects of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Valentine typewriter. In the 1960s, Sottsass began to test the limits of design in order to engage with the social and economic changes of the time. In the 1980s, he founded Memphis, a ""laboratory"" for design, which produced some of the most notable objects and interiors of the last quarter of the 20th century. He ended his career by establishing Sottsass Associati, which allowed him to complete buildings throughout the world and become one of the foremost representatives of postmodern architecture. . This book provides an overview of Ettore Sottsass's work and places it within a larger socioeconomic and political context. It includes texts by contemporary and cutting-edge political theorists. 70 colour and 30 b/w illustrations"

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9783791358826

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GEAN MORENO is Curator of Programs at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, where he founded and organizes the Art + Research Center.

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