SOTTSASS AT MET BREURER

The Sottsass exhibition at the Met Breurer shows some of the inspiration of the designer’s work.

The exhibition made a specific point of showing some of the exact things that Sottsass was looking at as he made his designs.  It was refreshing to see this sort of inspirational context of a famous designer.

An early Sottsass piece titled Tower Furniture for the “House with the Little Chinese Girl” was one of his groundbreaking pieces.   It was designed as part of a residential interior project.  The piece was meant to be looked out of by a small child.  The piece was made during the mid 1960s.

The exhibition then shows this example of an artwork that he had in his possession and was looking at while he designed the tower furniture.  This drawing is by Margarete Willers, and it was done in the mid 1920’s as part of a study for Bauhaus Textile Design.

Here we have documentation of what inspired an influential designer.  The curator saw the importance of showing us what the designer was looking at.

As we have said before in these pages, you have to start somewhere.  I believe that the creation story of these iconic pieces should be taught.  We should learn, in the very beginning, that Sottsass was looking at Bauhaus sketches as inspiration.  And it was refreshing to see a major cultural institution show this linkage.

The Transparent Drawing above is of Sottsass’ famous red typewriter, the Olivetti Valentine.  I drew it within it’s protective case.  Only with transparency do we begin to understand interesting symmetries.  For example, there is a symmetry between the shape of the carrying handle and of the protective bar at the front of the machine.  The longitudinal braces mimic the symmetry of the ribbon wheels.  The mechanical thru put from keys to type becomes clear.  These sorts of insights are only possible with Transparent Analogue Drawing.