Edited with text by Ignazia Favata. Text by Domitilla Dardi.
The latest in Silvana's catalogues raisonnés on Italian design appraises the "total design" ethos of Joe Colombo
The Tube Chair, the Spider lamp and the Boby trolley (now in the collection of MoMA in New York); the “Monoblocks,” such as the Mini-Kitchen or the Total Table with its integrated dishes; the beautiful global housing unit, a visionary “machine” that aims to encompass all the needs of living—these and other icons of Italian design by the brilliant visionary Milanese designer Joe Colombo expressed a total vision of living that was characteristic of his time.
This volume—part of Silvana’s series on 20th-century Italian design masters (with previous titles on Sarfatti, Parisi and Arredoluce)—constitutes the first catalogue raisonné of Colombo's work. Around 180 projects are documented, divided between works still in production and historical works, for companies such as Oluce, Kartell, Bieffe, Alessi, Flexform and Boffi. Essays by Ignazia Favata—Colombo’s longterm collaborator—and Domitilla Dardi are completed by a critical anthology.
Joe Colombo was born in Milan in 1930. In the early 1950s he worked as an artist, exhibiting alongside Enrico Baj, Lucio Fontana and Roberto Matta, also joining the Concrete art movement. He began to devote himself to design in 1960. In 1962 he opened a design studio in Milan, receiving architectural and design commissions. Among his best-known works are his Kartell chair of 1965; the Spider lamp (winner of the Golden Compass award in 1967); and his halogen light of 1970. Colombo died in 1971; he was posthumously included in MoMA’s 1972 show Italy—New Domestic Landscape.
Featured image is reproduced from ‘Joe Colombo: Designer'.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Designed in 1963, in continuous production since 1965, and known to many for its starring role in the 1977 James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, Joe Colombo's Elda armchair is one of Italy's most iconic, fundamentally futuristic pieces of twentieth-century furniture. Profiled recently in Architectural Digest, the chair's design was inspired by a visit to a shipyard where Colombo saw fiberglass hulls for small boats being molded into rounded shapes by hand. Featured photograph is reproduced from Joe Colombo: Designer, Silvana's action-packed catalogue raisonné, where Colombo's ideas about comfort, functionality, style and domestic design eerily predict our exact moment: "People will be able to study and work at home," he said months before his death in 1971, "distances will no longer matter, the megacity will lose its meaning." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11 in. / 304 pgs / 282 color / 461 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $90.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $126 ISBN: 9788836646333 PUBLISHER: Silvana Editoriale AVAILABLE: 8/17/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Joe Colombo: Designer Catalogue Raisonné 1962–2020
Published by Silvana Editoriale. Edited with text by Ignazia Favata. Text by Domitilla Dardi.
The latest in Silvana's catalogues raisonnés on Italian design appraises the "total design" ethos of Joe Colombo
The Tube Chair, the Spider lamp and the Boby trolley (now in the collection of MoMA in New York); the “Monoblocks,” such as the Mini-Kitchen or the Total Table with its integrated dishes; the beautiful global housing unit, a visionary “machine” that aims to encompass all the needs of living—these and other icons of Italian design by the brilliant visionary Milanese designer Joe Colombo expressed a total vision of living that was characteristic of his time.
This volume—part of Silvana’s series on 20th-century Italian design masters (with previous titles on Sarfatti, Parisi and Arredoluce)—constitutes the first catalogue raisonné of Colombo's work. Around 180 projects are documented, divided between works still in production and historical works, for companies such as Oluce, Kartell, Bieffe, Alessi, Flexform and Boffi. Essays by Ignazia Favata—Colombo’s longterm collaborator—and Domitilla Dardi are completed by a critical anthology.
Joe Colombo was born in Milan in 1930. In the early 1950s he worked as an artist, exhibiting alongside Enrico Baj, Lucio Fontana and Roberto Matta, also joining the Concrete art movement. He began to devote himself to design in 1960. In 1962 he opened a design studio in Milan, receiving architectural and design commissions. Among his best-known works are his Kartell chair of 1965; the Spider lamp (winner of the Golden Compass award in 1967); and his halogen light of 1970. Colombo died in 1971; he was posthumously included in MoMA’s 1972 show Italy—New Domestic Landscape.
