A great mourning in the world of Art for the Maestro of Italian design and architecture: he was 84 years old and passed away at his home in New York, where he had lived for a long time.
Since his beginnings in the late 1960s, he revolutionised Italian design with his work and his interventions.
During his 40-year career Gaetano Pesce has realised public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia in the fields of architecture, interior design, industrial design and exhibitions, driven by a constant tension towards innovation and experimentation.
His multidisciplinary work is in the permanent collections of the world's most important museums. The boundaries between art, design and industry can be considered irrelevant in Pesce's production. This is because according to the artist, art is also a product: it is the creative response to the needs of the time and culture in which we live.
His continuous research of advanced materials, languages and technology resulted in iconic productions such as the Up series (1969), consisting of seven voluptuously shaped seats made of polyurethane foam. The Up5 armchair is of particular relevance because is the first industrial design product made and used to transmit a political message: the denunciation of the female condition in the world. "It represents the body of a woman prisoner of prejudice. It was the first object with a political meaning," he said last year in an interview during the Salone del Mobile, when his installation for Bottega Veneta was one of the most visited during Milan Design Week.
His work has been subject to the ability to decline certain constant themes in an unexpected way: the diversified series, the dual functionality of objects and architecture, the creative use of colour and the theory of femininity in design. An ironic, unexpected, joyful design that has been able to investigate the emotional and tactile power of materials. Far away from masculine, monochromatic, rigid rationality.
Pesce's most famous works are Moloch, La lampada, Tramonto a New York, Il divano, Sansone, Il tavolo, I Feltri, Le poltrone, Cannaregio, the series of ten modular chairs and Sessantuna, the series of 61 tables to celebrate the Unification of Italy.
In addition to the creation of sculptures, architecture, design, furnishing accessories and giftware, in 2012 Gaetano Pesce presented his jewellery collection entitled "Pieces for the Body" in Paris. The artist says he chose this name because the definition of 'jewellery' seems to him specious for small objects that are more like sculptures. The collects was made by brooches, necklaces, bracelets and rings, multi-coloured or monochrome: made of polyurethane resin and belong to the Fish Design segment, which also includes vases. Translucent and colourful like the natural stones.
During the edition of Fuorisalone of this year, he would present a selection of new works in the exhibition 'Nice To See You - The Tired Man', held in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
A visionary who knew how to translate impossible suggestions into reality, to whom belonged the dream, declared on several occasions, to have a dedicated room inside the Carraresi castle.
Virna Facchinetti @ Modemonline
