CARLTON

The absolute Memphis masterpiece, Carlton – designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1981 – fully represents the programmatic intentions of the brand: the desire to break the rules of good design with an irreverent, unorthodox and conscious spirit. “My concern is to design objects that do not have precise boundaries, from a ‘biological’ or cultural standpoint. Objects that embrace the indecision that exists in the world,” Sottsass stated in the magazine Domus.

Carlton revolutionizes the very concept of the bookcase, with an object that becomes the protagonist of inhabited space. Order is subverted by the sloping of the compartments for the books. Only when the books are arranged diagonally can Carlton perform its function.

A bookcase-totem, modern but with a reminder of archaic forms, Carlton immediately became the symbol of all the production of Memphis. With its vaguely anthropomorphic design – resembling a man with arms raised and open legs – it can also be utilized as a divider, revolutionizing the functionalist logic of living space. The bright, vibrant colors of the decorative laminate become a powerful medium of visual communication.

With its particular image, Carlton seems to reproduce an unstable house of cards, getting beyond conventions to experiment with new expressive possibilities. It has a place of honor in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as a fundamental piece in the history of design. 

Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer. His work was devoted to the creation of furniture, jewellery, glass, lamps, objects for the home and office, as well as the design of many buildings and interiors. Raised in Turin, he graduated in Architecture at the Turin Polytechnic in 1939. In 1947 he founded his own architecture and industrial design studio in Milan, where he worked with various media. In 1956, Sottsass moved to New York where he began working in the studio of the designer George Nelson. His return to Italy was marked by the beginning of an important association with Poltronova (1957) and Olivetti (1958).

The relationship with Olivetti lasted over thirty years, and among the most iconic products he designed we would mention the first Italian electronic calculator, Elea 9003 (1959) and many typewriters, including the renowned Valentine. From the end of the 60s to the 70s he collaborated with Superstudio, Archizoom Associati and Alchymia, within the Architettura Radicale movement. Together with the Alchymia group, at the Design Forum in Linz (1979) he exhibited the Seggiolina da pranzo (the dining chair in chromed iron and Abet Print laminate), the Svicolo standard lamp (which produces lights in pop colours, by virtue of pink and black neon) and the coffee table Le strutture tremano (the structures tremble): objects characterized by contrasting colours and materials. These experiences were to lead to the founding of Memphis in 1981, which he headed. In the mid-1980s, with the Sottsass Associati architecture studio, he also designed elaborate shops and showrooms, corporate identities, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics and furniture of all kinds.

Ettore Sottsass won numerous international awards and was the winner of four ADI Compassi d'Oro. His works are exhibited in the permanent collections of many museums around the world, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

W 190, D 40, H 196 cm; 130 Kg