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Lot Essay
In 1955, at the age of 28, the architect Ettore Sottsass began to use ceramics as a material to express the very personal forms of an artistic research that he would carry on throughout his life with the creation of over 1000 different models of ceramic vases, towers and roundels. His works have shapes that sometimes recall the simple and archaic forms of objects from primitive civilizations, very far from the rational and functional design used by most ceramic artists of the 1950s.
His curiosity led him to try experiments with which he gives more intensity and personality to ordinary materials as ceramics. Lava ceramics were born because their surface appears just like a flow of volcanic lava, imperfect and grainy, like it is made of sand. This allows him to obtain a contrast between silent areas, such as sandpaper, and other areas densely coated with glossy or matte enamels.
These unique Lava ceramics were conceived between 1957 and 1959, compelling for their essence of experimental forms. In 1959 he began his collaboration with the Galleria Il Sestante for which about twenty models were produced in very small series. Sottsass had chosen from the experimental forms of the model originally designed in 1957, which is published by the Galleria Il Sestante in a few examples with different colors.
This is one of Sottsass’ favorite forms because it represents his personality as a cultured and experimental architect-artist. The model presented here is interesting for the combination of colors and the use of yellow which presents difficulties in kiln firing of ceramics.
The vase was physically produced by the Bitossi company of Montelupo, Fiorentino. Sometimes, as in this case, the artist's signature or the words Il Sestante do not appear, but only the gallery's catalog number, 905. The vase is, without a doubt, an authentic original, produced in 1959, corresponding in all its parts to the materials of the archive of the Galleria Il Sestante deposited at the Casa Mollino Museum in Turin.
-Fulvio Ferrari, Curator of Museo Casa Mollino
His curiosity led him to try experiments with which he gives more intensity and personality to ordinary materials as ceramics. Lava ceramics were born because their surface appears just like a flow of volcanic lava, imperfect and grainy, like it is made of sand. This allows him to obtain a contrast between silent areas, such as sandpaper, and other areas densely coated with glossy or matte enamels.
These unique Lava ceramics were conceived between 1957 and 1959, compelling for their essence of experimental forms. In 1959 he began his collaboration with the Galleria Il Sestante for which about twenty models were produced in very small series. Sottsass had chosen from the experimental forms of the model originally designed in 1957, which is published by the Galleria Il Sestante in a few examples with different colors.
This is one of Sottsass’ favorite forms because it represents his personality as a cultured and experimental architect-artist. The model presented here is interesting for the combination of colors and the use of yellow which presents difficulties in kiln firing of ceramics.
The vase was physically produced by the Bitossi company of Montelupo, Fiorentino. Sometimes, as in this case, the artist's signature or the words Il Sestante do not appear, but only the gallery's catalog number, 905. The vase is, without a doubt, an authentic original, produced in 1959, corresponding in all its parts to the materials of the archive of the Galleria Il Sestante deposited at the Casa Mollino Museum in Turin.
-Fulvio Ferrari, Curator of Museo Casa Mollino