Carlo Mollino: Architect Designer Photographer is an illustrated biography of the Turin architect, designer, photographer, pilot and writer, told by the two gallerists who did more than anyone to bring his work back into view.
About This Book
When Paola and Rossella Colombari first came across Carlo Mollino's furniture in 1981, he was a near-forgotten figure in Italian design. Their Venice auction a few years later helped create the international collectors' market that now prices his pieces in the millions. Four decades on, the sisters turn that long acquaintance into a portrait of the man as much as the work.
Rather than a critical monograph, the book follows Mollino from his Turin childhood to his death in 1973, moving through his architecture, interiors and furniture, his photography and darkroom experiments, his writing, and his obsessions with skiing, flying and fast cars. Drawing on the Mollino archive at the Politecnico di Torino, it brings together period photographs, drawings, sketches and photomontages—some previously unpublished—to show how completely his life and practice ran into one another.
Key Features
- A narrative biography of Mollino across architecture, design, photography, writing and sport
- Written by the gallerists who rediscovered his furniture in the early 1980s
- Archival material from the Politecnico di Torino, including previously unpublished documents
- An essay by architect Mario Cucinella placing Mollino in an international context
- A photographic portfolio by Uli Weber
What You'll Discover
- How Mollino's sculptural, organic furniture emerged from his interiors for Turin clients
- The role of photography, from staged interiors to his private Polaroids, in his practice
- His independent architectural thinking, from alpine buildings to the Teatro Regio
- How his passions for speed, aviation and skiing fed his sense of form
- The story of how his work moved from obscurity to the auction houses
About the Author
Paola and Rossella Colombari are sisters from a Turin family of antiques dealers. They opened their first gallery in Turin in 1981, devoted to modernism and to Mollino in particular. Paola later moved to Milan, turning first to the avant-garde and then to contemporary art; Rossella opened a Milan gallery specialising in 20th-century design and is the author of the standard reference on Mollino's furniture.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Dimensions: 229 × 279 mm
- Pages: 224
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788891843142
- Publisher: Rizzoli
Perfect For: collectors of midcentury Italian design, admirers of Mollino's furniture and photography, and readers who want the life behind the objects.