DANESE MILANO: 1957 BIS HEUTE
[DESIGN | KUNST | SPIELE]

Hans Albert Peters and Bernhard Holeczek

7 x 6.75 soft cover book with 96 pages and 33 b/w illustrations. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name: Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf [Oct 21 - Dec 3, 1989]; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum [Feb 11 - March 25, 1990]. Work includes lighting and desk accessories. This is a particularly good look at the work of Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari.

Contents

• Danese in Museum: Museo Danese by Hans Albert Peters and Bernhard Holeczek
• Design, Kunst, Spiele: Zur Kontinuitat eines Programmes by Wolfgang Schepers
• 1957 bis heute [Geschichte in Bildern: 32 ausgewahite Danese Objekte]
• Interview: Bruno Ninaber van Eyben im Gesprach mit Enzo Mari
• Biographien
• Werke in offentlichen Sammlungen
• Einzelauststellungen

Designers include Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, Angelo Mangiarotti, Giovanni Belgrano and Bruno Munari, Achille Castiglioni, Kuno Prey and Achille Castiglioni and Maurella Boifava.

Bruno Munari was born in Milan in 1907. At age eighteen, Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti mentored him there. Munari first showcased his "Useless Machines" in 1932 -- a series of Dadaist ever-moving geometrical solids suspended in the air. In 1948, Munari, along with Atanasio Soldati, Gianno Monet and Gillo Dorfles formed the MAC Movement [Movimento Arte Concreta] "to develop abstract painting and sculpture with no links whatsoever to the outside world." During this time, Munari continued creating his Convex-Concave sculptures and experimented with color, space, movement, form and background in his Negative-Positive works. The Italian Design Industry's interest in Munari led him to create the Pigomma Company's toy monkey, the Danese melamine cube ashtray and numerous other industrial design and illustrative works. After a career of over seventy years, Munari gained the title of "founding father of Italian design." Picasso described him as "the new Leonardo."

Excerpted from a HIDA designer biography: Mari started working in the industrial field in the 1950s and opened a studio in Milan to continue his studies in the psychology of vision, systems of perception and design methodologies . . . Traveling via bike one day, because he could not afford a taxi, he delivered his metal "Putrella" material to the Italian manufacturing company, DANESE. This initial meeting would be the beginning of a long-standing relationship between the manufacturer and Mari and from there they begin collaborating, eventually mass-manufacturing various products. The items created by Mari in fact, the "Putrella" and his wooden block series, remain some of DANESE's most visible products to this day. Doing his own experimental work in other areas of the visual arts, Mari went on to found the Nuova Tendenza group of artists in Milan in 1963. In the 1970's Mari began utilizing his production skills and experience to create a sustainable furniture line, while still continuing his work as a product designer. Today 29 of Mari's pieces are permanent fixture in MoMA's collection.

Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.

out of stock