Alcor

Object NameVase

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

Designer Memphis Group (Italian, 1981-1987)

Studio Toso Vetri d'Arte

Made FromNon-lead Glass

Date1983

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

Techniqueblown with hot applications, cold laminations

SizeOverall H: 46.4 cm, Diam (max): 18.2 cm

Accession Number88.3.15

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

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

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

Ettore Sottsass was one of the leading members of Memphis, the influential group of Italian architects and designers who subverted the minimal, functional aesthetic of Italian industrial design with provocative, colorful, and ironic objects. Memphis was the beginning of the trend in contemporary design to blur the boundaries between design and art.

Physical DescriptionColorless, transparent green, blue, amber, black, opaque white non-lead glasses; blown with hot applications, cold laminations. Tall multi-sectional vessel; top to bottom: small lipless hemispherical bowl; neck of short, wide, cylindrical section of colorless with black spiral wrap; attached to flattened green bubble; body is large spherical colorless bubble with overall irregular blue prunts; tall, domed colorless foot with overall inverted teardrop prunts of colorless with amber striations; inscribed in script on outside edge of foot rim: "Memphis Milano by Toso Vetri d'Arte".
Provenance

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