Ettore Sottsass, "Deneb" bowl

Ettore SOTTSASS (1917-2007), Bowl "Deneb" Model created in 1982. Memphis edition, Milan – executed by Toso Vetri d’Arte, Murano. Blown polychrome glass in transparent cobalt blue, colourless, green, yellow, red-amethyst, and black. Engraved signature on the base "Memphis by Toso Vetri d’Arte". The bowl is made of blown polychrome glass and consists of a large ovoid receptacle in cobalt blue glass resting on a cylindrical element in colourless glass, all supported by a circular, domed base in black glass. Three tubular elements of coloured glass, curved in an arc and arranged around the central axis, connect the receptacle to the base. Coloured respectively in green, yellow, and red-amethyst, they are secured at the ends by colourless glass ring attachments. The transparency of the different elements, combined with the intensity of the blue and black, creates a particularly graphic interplay of superimposed volumes and bold colours. Designed in 1982, the "Deneb" bowl belongs to the first glass creations conceived by Ettore SOTTSASS for Memphis, a movement of which he is the founding figure. The adventure began in Milan at the end of 1980 around Ettore SOTTSASS, surrounded notably by Martine BEDIN, Aldo CIBIC, Michele DE LUCCHI, Nathalie DU PASQUIER, Matteo THUN, and George J. SOWDEN. At the intersection of functional object, sculpture, and design manifesto, "Deneb" thus summarises several of the essential principles of Memphis: freedom of composition, expressive primacy of colour, questioning of traditional hierarchies between decorative arts and fine arts, and the meeting of contemporary creation and artisanal know-how. With its immediately identifiable design, it is today one of the characteristic glassworks of Ettore SOTTSASS's Memphis period.