{"id":32606,"date":"2026-10-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beculture.it\/?p=32606"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:38:46","slug":"ettore-sottsass-life-and-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beculture.it\/en\/ettore-sottsass-life-and-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Ettore Sottsass and his works: the art of subverting the rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is difficult to categorise a personality like Ettore Sottsass (1917\u20132007): an architect and designer, but also an artist, ceramicist, photographer and writer, a man of extraordinary imagination. Or rather, of \u2018indomitable creativity\u2019, as Fernanda Pivano, his first wife, described it. Winner of three Compassi d\u2019Oro and numerous other awards, with his work exhibited in several museums around the world \u2013 including MoMA in New York \u2013 he created some of the most original objects<\/strong> in Italian design, which still feel remarkably contemporary to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A life outside the box<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck to an Austrian mother and an Italian father (also named Ettore Sottsass, which is why he insisted on being called Ettore Sottsass Jr). After moving to Italy, he graduated from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1939<\/strong> and spent the following six years at the front. At the end of the Second World War, he returned to Italy and worked for a time in his father\u2019s architecture practice. Before long, however, he moved to Milan, where he made ends meet through various jobs and personal ventures. In 1949, he married Fernanda Pivano<\/strong>, whom he won over despite their class differences \u2013 he was a penniless architect, while she was a Ligurian translator from a well-to-do family. The years of post-war reconstruction were financially difficult but also tremendously stimulating: they frequently found themselves sharing a table with artists and intellectuals such as Sebastian Matta, Gio Ponti and Alberto Mondadori.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-1950s, Ettore became involved in ceramics almost by chance<\/strong>, when he was hired by an American entrepreneur who introduced him to Bitossi in Montelupo Fiorentino and tasked him with creating \u2018modern\u2019 ceramics. But Sottsass\u2019s proposals amounted to far more than a style and went well beyond a simple decorative update: they were innovative to their very core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"posate
Nuova Milano<\/em>, Ettore Sottsass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new and unconventional design philosophy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having rejected the easier path \u2013 that of an aesthetic reworking of ancient and Renaissance prototypes \u2013 Sottsass designs objects with completely new forms, capable of asserting their presence and establishing a new relationship with people and the space around them. Sottsass in fact aims to move beyond the consumerist logic<\/strong> that drives industry and encourages the serial accumulation of beautiful but useless things, as well as the purely ergonomic logic of extreme functionality. Throughout his work, in ceramics and beyond, he instead champions the idea of a design for life<\/strong>, in which material and aesthetics have and create meaning of their own, with an almost therapeutic symbolic function. No pre-existing schemes, no predefined method, but rather experimentation and an ability to immerse himself in the real world, which Sottsass always observes with a curious and hungry gaze. A hunger that he translates into drawings \u2013 a great many of them \u2013 and photographs, perhaps even more, particularly when travelling, intent on capturing the very essence of existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of travel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Travel was a fundamental part of Sottsass\u2019s life and of his professional and philosophical development. This began with his stay in New York in 1956, his first real experience of American society (\u2018crazy\u2019, as he himself would later describe it). But the most important was his three-month journey to India in 1961<\/strong>. His encounter with Indian culture, with its fascinating chaos and mysticism, had a profound impact on him and heightened the metaphorical and spiritual dimension of his subsequent creations. Another journey took him back to the United States, for a very different reason: an experimental treatment for the illness<\/strong> (nephrotic syndrome) with which he was diagnosed almost at the last possible moment upon his return from Bombay. During his hospital stay, Sottsass encountered the poets of the Beat Generation and the Pop movement, absorbing their revolutionary ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1971, his marriage to Fernanda began to break down and Ettore met Eulalia Grau<\/strong>, a Spanish artist with whom he had an intense relationship lasting around six years. In 1976, he eventually moved in with Barbara Radice, a writer and his final partner<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His career and collaborations with Poltronova and Olivetti<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Are you familiar with the Ultrafragola<\/em><\/strong> mirror<\/strong>? Perhaps Sottsass\u2019s most iconic object \u2013 a reflective glass mirror framed by an organically shaped illuminated frame resembling a woman\u2019s hair \u2013 it was first produced in 1970 by Poltronova, the Tuscan company for which he worked from 1956 to 1973. It is one of the few designs to have progressed beyond the prototype stage<\/strong>. His designs, so opposed to modern rationalism, so unconventional, colourful, ironic and even sensual, often proved incompatible with commercial dynamics. Sottsass challenges the idea of function as an end in itself and reinvents the principles of decoration, starting from human experience. Ultrafragola<\/em> is no exception. In his words: \u2018The lights are designed to emerge from the fibreglass body, like the shining white of the white skin of breasts, or the shining red of the tip of the penis on pornographic nights, something like that, I mean something like Japanese fireflies that turn May nights into solid matter. Could there be anything more ridiculous?\u2019 Despite the small number of pieces produced, his collaboration with Poltronova nevertheless proved long-lasting and fruitful, alongside his equally significant collaboration with Olivetti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"specchio
Ultrafragola<\/em>, Ettore Sottsass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Ettore fell ill, it was Roberto Olivetti<\/strong>, son of the celebrated Adriano, who covered all the costs of his treatment in America, thereby saving his life. Indeed, theirs was not merely a professional relationship but a strong and close friendship<\/strong>, which had bound them since Ettore joined Olivetti in 1958. At the time, his task was to give form to the first electronic computer produced by the Italian company, Elea<\/em>. It was certainly no easy undertaking for a young designer, but was facilitated by the relationship of mutual respect that developed with Roberto and with Mario Tchou, the engineer in charge. From then on, their partnership was successfully renewed year after year: Ettore designed several calculating machines and typewriters. It is impossible not to mention the celebrated<\/strong> Valentine<\/em><\/strong> (1969), \u2018the ballpoint pen of typewriters\u2019, as he described it: a red portable typewriter, extremely compact (in the initial version, capital letters had even been eliminated to reduce its size), made from extremely lightweight plastic. Conceived for widespread popular use, it would instead be embraced by the intellectual world, ultimately remaining a niche object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"valentine
Valentine<\/em>, Ettore Sottsass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before long, Ettore was in charge of all Olivetti\u2019s office systems design<\/strong> and had to tackle all the challenges inherent in industrial design. Thanks to his unique relationship with the company, Sottsass was able to establish a studio of freelance designers paid by Olivetti but managed entirely by him. It was an arrangement that perfectly reconciled the company\u2019s production and reliability requirements while allowing the designers the freedom to express their creativity outside the factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three Compasso d\u2019Oro Awards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ettore Sottsass was awarded three Compassi d\u2019Oro<\/a>, two of which were connected with Olivetti. Elea 9003<\/em><\/strong> (1959) was the first Italian electronic computer. The jury fully recognised its innovative significance, praising \u2018the successful aesthetic and functional solution of the modularity underlying the system and the high level of visual culture which […] makes a unique contribution to the aesthetic tradition of European design\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"elea
Elea 9003<\/em>, Ettore Sottsass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was not long before Sottsass, together with his colleague Hans von Klier, designed another outstanding object (awarded the Compasso d\u2019Oro in 1970), again for Olivetti. According to the jury, the<\/strong> MC19<\/em><\/strong> electric adding machine<\/strong> combined functionality with an appealing image in a surprising way, unusual for this type of object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their soft, rounded lines, as though \u2018smoothed like a pebble by the sea\u2019, the Nuova Milano<\/em><\/strong> cutlery service<\/strong> for Alessi was awarded the prestigious prize in 1989. Having become a true classic thanks to its simplicity, it remains in production today.<\/p>\n\n\n