Installation shot (photo: Claudia Zanardi)<\/p>\n
Alongside his studio output, Mendini was also a prolific writer and theorist. His editorship of design magazines Casabella (1970-76), Modo (1977-81) and Domus (1980-85, 2010-11) gave him an influential platform to share his critical thinking.<\/p>\n
Now the UK\u2019s first major exhibition of Mendini\u2019s work has come to the Estorick Collection in London, bringing together over 50 items including furniture, textiles, ceramics, paintings and lighting products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Installation shot with (in foreground) Neo Malevic and B (Superego Design) ceramic vase, both reimagining the work of Kazimir Malevich (photo: Claudia Zanardi)<\/p>\n
But how to make sense of such a wide-ranging and experimental designer? Mendini regularly took inspiration from avant-garde artists and art movements, which he used as launch pads for his own design process. This exhibition is divided into four sections, each focusing on one such inspiration and resulting works.<\/p>\n
The first stopping point is Italian Futurism. Mendini was exposed to Futurist paintings as a child via his family\u2019s collection of modern art. He was strongly influenced by the movement, attracted to the idea of transforming society through radical design. So it seems fitting that Mendini name-checks his Futurist heroes. Two fabric wall panels \u2013 Per Depero 1 and Per Depero 2 (both 2010) \u2013 pay homage to artist and writer Fortunato Depero, whose paintings are echoed through bold colours and abstract shapes. Further tributes can be seen in Futurist Masks (2017-2018), each depicting prominent artists from the movement, including Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Futurist Masks: Balla, 2017, mask in metal and enamel (photo: Marco Pardini)<\/p>\n
Another section of the exhibition, entitled Proust, contains the designer\u2019s most famous product: the Proust Armchair (1978). Mendini combined a faux-antique armchair he found with the Pointillist technique of Neo-Impressionist painter Paul Signac, together intended to evoke the Proustian sense of a chance experience unlocking a flood of memories. This object also demonstrates one of Mendini\u2019s favoured principles: \u2018redesign\u2019 \u2013 reviving existing, often neglected furniture through exuberant decoration.<\/p>\n
Over subsequent years, variations of the Proust Armchair in different materials and colour schemes were released, as well as ornamental porcelain miniatures, while Mendini brought Pointillist patterning to other items, including watches, vases, coffee makers and puppets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Proust Armchair, 1978, carved wooden frame and hand-painted fabric (photo: Carlo Lavatori)<\/p>\n
In a part of the show labelled Neo-Malevic, we find objects inspired by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, although not his pioneering Suprematist paintings, but his later figurative works depicting simplified human forms. This is seen most clearly in Anna Harlequin (1999), a ceramic sculpture of a woman painted in colourful geometric shapes. Visitors can appreciate, too, Maldini\u2019s own journey towards abstraction, for example with Neo Malevic (2003), a pared-down sculpture of a human head made from fibreglass and papier m\u00e2ch\u00e9, while 12 Columns (2008) \u2013 three are exhibited here \u2013 takes the form of giant skittles decorated with abstracted humanoid features.<\/p>\n
Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky provides the final point of departure. At the 1980 Venice Biennale, Mendini (as part of Studio Alchimia) launched a selection of works inspired by Kandinsky, most notably the Kandissi sofa. The exhibition includes K2 (2013), a later version of this, comprising an angular wooden frame and patterned fabric, which attempts to capture Kandinsky\u2019s dynamic designs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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K2, 2013, two-seater sofa in painted wood with Carmen fabric (photo: Lot of Brazil)<\/p>\n
The exhibition was put together by Italian curator and writer Alberto Fiz, in collaboration with the Archivio Alessandro Mendini in Milan. With limited space at the Estorick, a chronological installation or anything attempting to be comprehensive would have been woefully incomplete, so Fiz is right to eschew this in favour of clustering items around defined themes.<\/p>\n
Unlike many other solo shows, this exhibition doesn\u2019t come with accompanying archival odds and ends \u2013 photographs, preliminary sketches, letters and newspaper clippings \u2013 that help tell the story of the designer\u2019s life. And apart from short introductions to each section, there are no didactic texts providing background details on each item \u2013 which some gallery visitors may miss.<\/p>\n
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Alessandro Mendini (photo: Ambrogio Beretta)<\/p>\n
Instead, the exhibition consists almost solely of finished products. So what we lose in backstory, we gain in the aesthetic experience of wandering a space filled purely with items destined for the public domain \u2013 a snapshot of the world as Mendini would have it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
And as a snapshot, this exhibition provides a fascinating glimpse into the myriad ways that Mendini constantly revisited and repackaged the artistic styles that inspired\u00a0him.<\/p>\n