Sol

Object NameCompote

Artist Ettore Sottsass (Italian, b. Austria, 1917-2007)

Design Collaborative Memphis Group (Italian, 1981-1987)

Manufacturer Toso Vetri d'Arte

Made Fromnon-lead glass

Date1982

Place MadeItaly, Venice, Murano; Italy, Milano, Milan

TechniqueBlown, assembled while hot, hot applications

SizeH: 26.7 cm, D(max): 31.5 cm, (w/o extension): 28.8 cm

Accession Number88.3.14

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

On ViewBen W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass.

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

One of Italy’s most celebrated designers, Ettore Sottsass began his work with glass in 1948 and continued into the late 1990s. He created designs for the Murano companies SALIR, Vistosi, and Venini, and he is especially well known for the series he produced in the early 1980s for Toso Vetri d’Arte. Sottsass was one of the leading members of Memphis, the influential group of Italian architects and designers who sought to subvert the cool idealism of 1970s Italian design with provocative, colorful, and ironic objects that challenged notions of good design.

Physical DescriptionColorless, shades of transparent blue and red, opaque white non-lead glasses; blown, assembled while hot, hot applications. Compote-shaped vessel; top to bottom: wide shallow bowl of white cased in blue with thick white lip wrap, lip punctuated by three small vertical blue triangles and two short lengths (one of white laying on rim, one of red at right angle), third short section (white) extends from underside; from underside of bowl three cyma curve "handles" of white, blue, and red, attached with colorless bits descend and attach to upper area of foot; bowl is attached to short hollow cylindrical stem of colorless laminated to a hollow, deep, domed foot of red with thick rim wrap of white; inscribed in script on foot above wrap: "Memphis Milano by Toso Vetri d'Arte".
Provenance

Source Memphis Milano, International Design Center - 1987-12-30