Ettore Sottsass for Esprit

ETTORE SOTTSASS (Innsbruck, 1917 – Milan, 2007) for Esprit.
Shelf, 1985.
Polychrome wood.
Shows slight signs of wear consistent with its age.
Measurements: 169.5 × 31.5 × 172 cm.
Designed in 1985 by Sottsass Associati for the Esprit store in Cologne, this room divider exemplifies the radical and innovative design language that defined Ettore Sottsass’s work during the 1980s. Conceived as both a functional piece of furniture and a true sculptural work, it embodies the designer’s philosophy of breaking with the principles of modern rationalism through dynamic geometric forms, vibrant colors, and a playful approach to furniture design. Crafted from polychrome wood, the piece combines an architectural structure of orthogonal lines with a bold color palette featuring shades of gray, red, blue, green, yellow, and brown. The overlapping of planes, niches, and volumes creates a visual interplay of great artistic impact, where each element serves both a storage function and contributes to the artistic composition. The piece was conceived as a custom project for Esprit, a brand with which Sottsass developed a fruitful collaboration in the 1980s. These commissions allowed the designer to experiment with retail space as an immersive environment, in which the furniture transcended its utilitarian purpose to become an essential element of the brand’s visual identity.
Ettore Sottsass was one of the most influential designers and architects of the 20th century. Trained in Turin, he pursued a prolific career in the fields of industrial design, architecture, furniture, and ceramics. After collaborating for decades with Olivetti, he founded the Memphis movement in 1981. His deeply innovative work is part of the permanent collections of institutions such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, cementing his status as a key figure in the history of international design.