Friday,
September 08, 2006
Bruno Munari:
Designer; Understated, Joy and Playful - 5 Time "Compasso
d'Oro"
Winner
Although
late Milan designer Bruno
Munari was a five-time
winner of Italy's prestigious Compasso d'Oro design
award, it was probably his wide-ranging versatility that prevented
him from being less well known than contemporaries such as Achille Castiglioni, Joe Colombo
and Marco Zanuso.
Munari, set himself apart from
other designers, in that he was dedicated to a quiet, playful revolution,
inventing and designing with humorous and modest creativity." The designer
challenged "all conventions and stereotypes intelligently, but without
flamboyance."
Munari's deceptive simplicity is best-known in his
work for Milan
manufacturer Danese in the mid-20th century.
Munari's Universal Sense of Play
Milan designer adept at creating products for adults and
children
Canada's Cosmopolitan News,Arts and Sports
Sept10,2006 - Sept17,2006
Despite producing
a handful of iconic product designs in the 1950s and 60s, it's safe to say that the late Milan designer Bruno Munari
was decidedly less well known than contemporaries such
as Achille Castiglioni, Joe
Colombo and Marco Zanuso. Perhaps Munari
lacked a marketing sense possessed by his peers, but more likely it was the Milan designer's wide-ranging versatility that prevented an
audience from having a fixed perception of his work.
At turns a
graphic and product designer, illustrator, sculptor, photographer, and author, Munari nonetheless brought a unified sense of spirit to his
output. "What sets Munari apart from other
designers is that he engaged in a quiet, playful revolution, inventing and
designing with humorous and modest creativity," wrote American curator and
writer Judith Hoffberg on the occasion of a Munari retrospective presented by the Italian Cultural
Institute in Los Angeles
in 2003. The Milan-based designer challenged "all conventions and
stereotypes intelligently, but without flamboyance," Hoffberg
added.
The deceptive
simplicity of Munari's
best-known work for Milan
manufacturer Danese in the mid-20th century could not
have been anticipated, given a younger Munari's roots in the Italian Futurist design
movement. Born in 1907, Munari's
career beginnings in the late 1920s and early 30s were marked by dynamic
Futurist-influenced graphic designs for advertising posters for clients such as
Campari, Olivetti and Pirelli.
The Futurist
design movement celebrated the new machine age, but Munari
had already had his fill of industrial progress by the middle of the 1930s,
when he proposed a series of satirical objects - such as a mechanical tail wagger for dogs -which he dubbed Useless Machines. It was a
playful poke at the era's fascination
with new machinery, but it also laid the groundwork for the understated design
approach which marked the remainder of Munari's career. While other designers tried to
outdo each other in the outlandish department, Munari
retreated to designs that emphasized basic shapes and materials.
He found a
sympathetic manufacturer in Milan's Danese, and the late
1950s to the mid 1960s saw the introduction of Munari
product designs which have become classics. The Falkland
pendant lamp (1964) is an innovative combination of elastic fabric and aluminum
rings which has become a lighting design standard. The
earlier Bali lamp (1957) is an elegant design
of plastic and wood. Munari's
Cubo ashtray and upright Levanzo
and Ponza waste containers are modern design
standards that, along with the inevitable knockoff designs, are common sights
in commercial office spaces.
Parallel to his
work in serious industrial design, Munari's natural sense of play began to shine in a
series of toys and books for children. Zizi, a
bendable monkey figurine, is familiar to many children, as are books
illustrated and written by Munari which focus on
topics such as creativity and the many wonders of nature. Munari's fascination with our natural sense of
discovery was not limited to a young audience. American design curator Paola
Antonelli has noted that designs such as the expandable Falkland
pendant lamp have a level of interactivity between designer and user that Munari wanted to encourage. "Munari
left the imaginative part of the (design) equation to those who encountered his
creations, allowing art to become the experience of all, and all to become
artists through their interactions with his work," Antonelli has said.
A five-time
winner of Italy's prestigious Compasso d'Oro design
award, Munari passed away eight years ago, though his
influence is still felt. A testament to his design achievements, London's Design Museum
will present a retrospective of Bruno Munari's work next winter and spring. As the
American curator Hoffberg has noted, Munari had an "exceptional ability to stimulate
surprise, irony, and harmony" and it was a sense of joy and play which
ultimately defined his versatile work.
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