ART021 Online PLATFORM

Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Peter Shire

10 – 15 November 2020

We selected 10 highlighted pieces from “Memphis Milano” and “Post Design”. This is also the first exhibition of the “Memphis Milano” brand in China. We hope that these exquisite art collections can bring a unique journey for Chinese art lovers.

“Memphis Milano” is the great cultural phenomenon of the 1980s that revolutionized creative and commercial logics in design. Founded in Milan in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass. Born from the idea of Ettore Sottsass and a group of young designers and architects, coupled in the years by famous designers from the international scene, Memphis turned upside down all of the existing parameters on living. Ettore Sottsass as the backbone of the group, design gained a new concept and expression through new shapes, materials and patterns, expanding the creative limits of the industry. Memphis became a symbol of new design. Its influence is still clear in various sectors of production and beyond.

A true cultural phenomenon, Memphis really shook up the design codes by voluntarily placing itself outside the canons of “good taste” of the time. Out went the pure, hard functionalism and austerity Bauhaus-style, and in came fantasy with colourful and eccentric creations. The first Memphis collection hit like a bombshell: a proliferation of exuberant patterns, explosive colours, intrepid asymmetries, geometric shapes stacked up like totems, new use of plastic laminate considered “cheap” until then… Soon, Memphis became THE subversive label of Italian design with its wacky, colourful world inspired by comics, Pop Art, cinema, Kitsch and Art Deco. It was a revolution: design, until then confined to the showrooms, invaded the media and inflamed passion.

Within the confines of design, architecture, art and post-modernism, these exceptional pieces are now sought after by collectors around the world and exhibited in the most prestigious museums.
“Post Design” is an ambitious project of open investigation into the future, aimed to opening up e new path and recording changes in progress, in belief that in design just like in life, nothing should be taken for granted.

All these original models are collector’s items all bearing the original seal, a guarantee of authenticity. In addition, each piece has its own paper certificate of authenticity, itself bearing the seal. Some models bear the signature of the designer.

SELECTED WORKS