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Preliminary Project for Microenvironment

Ettore Sottsass Italian, born Austria
ca. 1971
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Sottsass’s Environment for "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape" consists of large plastic boxes into which equipment can be placed. Sottsass sought to counter what he saw as a postwar materialistic lifestyle by using ordinary materials and neutral colors to create an environment in which inhabitants are uninterested in furniture as precious objects to possess. Instead, the functional modules are intended to serve as a communal asset, not unlike the current development of car sharing.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Preliminary Project for Microenvironment
  • Artist: Ettore Sottsass (Italian (born Austria), Innsbruck 1917–2007 Milan)
  • Date: ca. 1971
  • Medium: Collage with ink, gouache, acrylic and tape
  • Dimensions: 15 3/4 × 11 3/4 in. (40 × 29.8 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the designer, 2013
  • Rights and Reproduction: Studio Ettore Sottsass Srl Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art