‘Ettore Sottsass: Fragile’ on view at Phillips’ London galleries on Berkeley Square. Photography: ©Phillips Rui Cravo

Over 20 years before founding Memphis in 1980 – the subversive Italian design and architecture group that spearheaded a movement against the rigid rules of modernism – a young Ettore Sottsass was already experimenting with the radical design language that would later become his legacy. Created between 1955 and 1970, these artisanal experiments in form and colour were realised in ceramic and enamel – a medium that the designer returned to over and over throughout his 60-year career.

在1980年创立孟菲斯之前的20多年里，一位年轻的埃托尔·索特萨斯(Ettore Sottsass)已经在尝试激进的设计语言，这种语言后来将成为他的遗产。孟菲斯是一家颠覆性的意大利设计和建筑集团，带头反对现代主义的僵化规则。创建于1955年至1970年，这些手工实验的形式和颜色都是在陶瓷和搪瓷中实现的-这是设计师在他60年的职业生涯中反复使用的一种媒介。

Over 150 of the works that Sottsass created during this early period are now assembled at Phillips’ London galleries on Berkeley Square in a non-selling exhibition titled ‘Ettore Sottsass: Fragile’.

索特萨斯在早期创作的150多件作品现在伯克利广场的菲利普斯伦敦画廊展出，展览名为“Ettore Sottsass：脆性”。

‘There has never been an exhibition of Sottsass’s ceramics like this one,’ says French architect and avid Sottsass collector Charles Zana, who co-curated the exhibition with historian Fulvio Ferrari. ‘We want to show people this fantastic saga.’

法国建筑师兼索特萨斯收藏家查尔斯·扎纳(CharlesZana)说，“从来没有过像这样的索特萨斯陶瓷展。”萨纳和历史学家富维奥·法拉利(Fulvio法拉利)共同策划了这次展览。“我们想给人们看这个神奇的传说。”

Work from 1958 in clay, polychrome glazes and protective wax. Photography: Jacques Pépion

1958年开始在粘土，彩色釉和保护蜡中工作。摄影：Jacques Pépion

The collections on show, Zana informs, were largely produced over a ten-year period by small artisanal workshops such as Bitossi for Milanese gallery Il Sestante. For Sottsass, the pieces were created purely as a creative outlet with very few actually being sold at the time of their production.

Zana说，展出的收藏品主要是由小型手工作坊制作的，比如米兰Il Sestante画廊的Bitossi。对于Sottsass来说，这些作品纯粹是作为一个创造性的渠道创造出来的，很少有作品在制作的时候真正被出售。

‘We want to show people this fantastic saga.’

“我们想给人们看这个神奇的传说。”

‘Maybe some were given to friends and intellectuals in Milan, but they were very unconventional for their time,’ remarks Zana, who says that Sottsass produced around ten collections over ten years for the gallery. ‘That’s why I find it so remarkable that this young architect managed to convince the best ceramic company to produce them. I am always interested in people who were not commercially successful in their time,’ he adds.

扎纳说：“也许有些东西是送给米兰的朋友和知识分子的，但他们的时间很不传统。”她说，索特萨斯在过去的十年里为这个画廊创作了大约十套藏品。这就是为什么我发现这位年轻的建筑师成功地说服了最好的陶瓷公司来生产它们。他补充说：“我总是对那些在商业上没有成功的人感兴趣。”

Zana has been collecting Sotsass’s works for around 20 years and estimates that he has around 50 of the designer’s pieces in his personal collection, although he hasn’t ever counted.

Zana已经收集了大约20年的Sotsass的作品，并且估计他的个人收藏中有大约50件作品，尽管他从来没有统计过。

Colaggio,1963 and from the Ceramic Whistle series, 1962. Photography: Jacques Pépion

Colaggio，1963年，来自陶瓷哨子系列，1962年。摄影：Jacques Pépion

‘Every collection has something to say about Sottsass – he created them as an artist not an architect,’ he enthuses. ‘This is why these years were so incredibly rich.’

他热情洋溢地说：“每个收藏品都有一些关于索特萨斯的东西-他是作为艺术家而不是建筑师创作的。”这就是为什么这些年变得如此富有的原因。

Starting from 1955 the pieces show that even in the beginning the designer was pushing boundaries. Between 1957 and 1959 he produced Ceramiche di lava – a series of around 30 pleasingly tactile pieces with rough surfaces made from lava – according to Zana he was the first artist to do so. From here he abandoned the material entirely and switched direction.

从1955年开始，这些作品就表明，即使是在开始的时候，设计师也在突破界限。据扎纳说，在1957年到1959年期间，他制作了陶粒状熔岩-一系列大约30件由熔岩制成的令人愉悦的触觉制品-他是第一位这样做的艺术家。从这里开始，他完全放弃了材料，改变了方向。

‘This is what makes the way he worked so interesting. It’s a very modern way to think,’ comments Zana. ‘Each year the collections were very different.’

“这是他如此感兴趣的方式。这是一种非常现代的想法，”Zana评论说，“每年的集合都是非常不同的。”

In Sottsass’s work from the early 1960s we start to see the emergence of the black and white grid that became a signature trademark for the designer. This pattern, Zana says, was influenced by his upbringing in the Italian Tyrol and the influence of Austrian designers such as Josef Hoffman and the artists of the Wiener Werkstätte.

在索特萨斯20世纪60年代初的作品中，我们开始看到黑白格子的出现，它成为设计师的标志性商标。扎纳说，这种模式受到了他在意大利蒂罗尔长大的影响，也受到了奥地利设计师(如约瑟夫·霍夫曼)和维纳·韦克斯特(Wiener Werkst Tte)艺术家的影响。

Grande vaso afrodisiaco per conservare pillole antifecondative totem in polychrome ceramic, 1964. Photography: Jacques Pépion

1964年，在多色陶瓷中，每个保护地的大面积非洲菊糖是一种具有抗生殖力的图腾。摄影：Jacques Pépion

The large-scale totems that Sottsass produced in 1967 for Enzo Sperone Gallery in Milan are perhaps some of his most recognisable works. Zana says that despite their cheerful appearance, these colourful stacked forms were actually inspired by the cocktail of pills he was prescribed during a stay at a treatment centre in Palo Alto when suffering from nephritis. It was at this time during his illness that he also dreamt up the Ceramic of Darkness collection, with its hallucinogenic sun and moon symbolism. Meanwhile the Yantra series from 1969 references the designer’s ongoing fascination with Tantric art and Indian culture.

索特萨斯在1967年为米兰的恩佐·斯佩龙画廊创作的大型图腾也许是他最著名的作品之一。扎纳说，尽管这些五颜六色的堆叠形式看起来很愉快，但实际上是受到他在帕洛阿尔托一家治疗中心因患肾炎而服用的药片的启发。就在这个时候，在他生病的时候，他还幻想出了“黑暗的陶器”，它有着令人产生幻觉的太阳和月亮的象征意义。同时，1969年的Yantra系列也提到了这位设计师对密宗艺术和印度文化的持续迷恋。

‘Sottsass was someone that could be dark,’ explains Zana. ‘He was always working with old materials, simple form, very basic colour and was inspired by ancient culture, but at the same time his work was very modern – I’m very moved by that.’

萨娜解释说：“索特萨斯可能是个黑暗的人。”“他总是用古老的材料，简单的形式，非常基本的颜色，受到古代文化的启发，但同时他的作品也很现代-我对此非常感动。”

‘Every collection has something to say about Sottsass – he created them as an artist not an architect,’

“每个收藏品都有一些关于索特萨斯的东西-他是作为艺术家而不是建筑师创作的。”

With his encyclopaedic knowledge, Zana’s stories bring the collections to life, yet at the Phillips exhibition, the ceramics are left to speak for themselves – a missed opportunity perhaps. Presented in groups across the space, these miniature ceramic skylines illustrate the designer’s unique and experimental aesthetic while serving as a reminder that there was much more to the man than Memphis.

有了他的百科全书知识，扎纳的故事使收藏品生机勃勃，然而在菲利普斯展览上，陶器只能自言自语-这也许是一个错失的机会。这些微型陶瓷天际线以小组形式呈现在整个空间，展示了设计师独特的和实验性的美学，同时也提醒人们，除了孟菲斯，还有更多的东西给男人。

To coincide with the opening this week, Zana also celebrates the launch of his book, Charles Zana: The Art of Interiors, published by Rizzoli, and the launch of a series of furniture pieces with London gallery The Invisible Collection. Pieces are on show at the brand’s discreet Belgravia townhouse showroom until 12 April. §

为了配合本周的开幕典礼，扎纳还庆祝了由里佐利出版的“查尔斯·扎纳：室内艺术”(Charles Zana：The Art of Interiors)一书的发行，以及与伦敦画廊“无形藏品”(The Invisible Collection)一起推出的一系列家具作品。作品在品牌的别致的贝尔格拉维亚联排陈列室展出，直到4月12日。§