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Lithograph

1973 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

These lithographs represent a major period of reflection in Sottsass’ life when he was reframing his ideas about modernist practice and utopian design in response to both the experience of his travels in India and the US. At the same time Sottsass took an increasingly critical position in relation to architectural practise and these images clearly bear a close relationship to his design practise and thoughts on product design and ceramics as a form of micro-architecture. They address the need for a rethinking of buildings in terms of their ritual function and their symbolic associations.

Sottsass described his Indian travels as a search for origins and an exploration of the sensory (rather than the rational) terms of existence; India expanded his understanding of the connections between objects and the rituals of daily life. The colours, forms, language and mystical references of Indian culture reverberated in his work for decades to come.

These were fused with a heady embrace of the pop and beatnik impulses of the 1960s, which he encountered on trips to the United States, crossing paths with the Beat poets Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Neal Cassady and others (connections made through Pivano, translator and friend to the Beat generation). These encounters came about after Sottsass was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness in 1962, on his return to Italy from India.

On his return to Italy, Sottsass channelled his newfound interests into a series of ceramic works. The first, entitled Ceramics of Darkness (1963), and subsequent collections (Offerings to Shiva, 1964; Tantric Ceramics, 1968; and Yantras of Terracotta, 1969) employed a system of cosmological signs that allude to meditation, the relationship between the individual and the universal, and symbolic sexual union – all drawn from an amalgam of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. This fascination with non-Western culture offered a way out of the strictures of modernist practice which was rooted in the sensorial, and which he also equated with the easy pleasures of life encountered in America. These thoughts culminated in a collection of large-scale ceramic works shown first at the influential Sperone Gallery (known for exhibiting Pop Art and Arte Povera) in Turin and then Milan, and collectively titled Menhir, Ziggurat, Stupas, Hydrants and Gas Pumps. In his series of lithographs Planet as Festival (1972–3), he imagined buildings which, like his ceramics, were containers for the pleasures of life: ‘super-instruments’ in which to take drugs, have sex, listen to music and watch the stars, in the form of Aztec temples, Indian shrines and giant teapots. In the series entitled Indian Memories of 1973, these temples shrink to actual teapots once more.

Endeavouring to move his drawings away from the tradition architectural renderings, he employed Japanese painter and illustrator Tiger Tateishi to create further hand-coloured lithographs. Sottsass’ representation of various teapots against imaginary landscapes attests to the significance of this collaboration, which imbues the drawings with a cooler, comic-strip-like playfulness.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Lithograph on paper
Brief description
Design concept lithograph by Ettore Sottsass, teapot with moon, lithograph, Italy, 1973
Physical description
Lithograph of a yellow tea pot resembling a ziggurat, in a clearing surrounded by black and white foliage with a half moon in the sky. Labelled 'TEA POT', signed and dated, with an edition number.
Dimensions
  • Height: 69.8cm
  • Width: 49.8cm
Style
Production typeLimited edition
Copy number
7 of 35
Marks and inscriptions
  • 7/35 (edition number)
  • Sottsass '73 (signature and date)
  • TEA POT
Subjects depicted
Summary
These lithographs represent a major period of reflection in Sottsass’ life when he was reframing his ideas about modernist practice and utopian design in response to both the experience of his travels in India and the US. At the same time Sottsass took an increasingly critical position in relation to architectural practise and these images clearly bear a close relationship to his design practise and thoughts on product design and ceramics as a form of micro-architecture. They address the need for a rethinking of buildings in terms of their ritual function and their symbolic associations.

Sottsass described his Indian travels as a search for origins and an exploration of the sensory (rather than the rational) terms of existence; India expanded his understanding of the connections between objects and the rituals of daily life. The colours, forms, language and mystical references of Indian culture reverberated in his work for decades to come.

These were fused with a heady embrace of the pop and beatnik impulses of the 1960s, which he encountered on trips to the United States, crossing paths with the Beat poets Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Neal Cassady and others (connections made through Pivano, translator and friend to the Beat generation). These encounters came about after Sottsass was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness in 1962, on his return to Italy from India.

On his return to Italy, Sottsass channelled his newfound interests into a series of ceramic works. The first, entitled Ceramics of Darkness (1963), and subsequent collections (Offerings to Shiva, 1964; Tantric Ceramics, 1968; and Yantras of Terracotta, 1969) employed a system of cosmological signs that allude to meditation, the relationship between the individual and the universal, and symbolic sexual union – all drawn from an amalgam of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. This fascination with non-Western culture offered a way out of the strictures of modernist practice which was rooted in the sensorial, and which he also equated with the easy pleasures of life encountered in America. These thoughts culminated in a collection of large-scale ceramic works shown first at the influential Sperone Gallery (known for exhibiting Pop Art and Arte Povera) in Turin and then Milan, and collectively titled Menhir, Ziggurat, Stupas, Hydrants and Gas Pumps. In his series of lithographs Planet as Festival (1972–3), he imagined buildings which, like his ceramics, were containers for the pleasures of life: ‘super-instruments’ in which to take drugs, have sex, listen to music and watch the stars, in the form of Aztec temples, Indian shrines and giant teapots. In the series entitled Indian Memories of 1973, these temples shrink to actual teapots once more.

Endeavouring to move his drawings away from the tradition architectural renderings, he employed Japanese painter and illustrator Tiger Tateishi to create further hand-coloured lithographs. Sottsass’ representation of various teapots against imaginary landscapes attests to the significance of this collaboration, which imbues the drawings with a cooler, comic-strip-like playfulness.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
E.325-2011

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Record createdJuly 12, 2011
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