Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Rocchetto or Reel
Ettore Sottsass Italian, born Austria
Bitossi, Montelupo Fiorentino Italian
Not on view
Sottsass began designing ceramics in 1956 at the request of Irving Richards for his New York imports company, Raymor. Richards connected Sottsass to the art director of Bitossi, Aldo Londi, who introduced Sottsass to the intricacies of the medium. Ceramics soon become a lifelong obsession. While Sottsass’s initial vases were not a commercial success, they allowed him to experiment with color and design. These pieces, from his series Reels and Isolators, are examples of his early interest in archetypal forms. They demonstrate the continued influence of Austrian and German geometric abstraction on his work.
