The definitive volume on Gaetano Pesce’s incomparable life and career, as told in the artist-designer’s own words In a category all his own, Gaetano Pesce is widely considered one of the most important, and elusive, creative figures of the last half century. Bridging numerous key art and design movements, while never belonging to any of them, Pesce’s singular practice has remained steadfastly provocative, defying convention, utility, and good taste. Glenn Adamson, the acclaimed curator and writer, conducted the wide-ranging interview with Pesce on which this book is based, drawing out new stories and insights, as well as providing an introduction that thoroughly contextualizes Pesce’s unique position in contemporary art and design. As postmodern design has become increasingly desirable, interest in Pesce has grown with renewed exhibition activity and critical attention, and his work has become even more valuable and collectible. In this long overdue summary co-published with Salon 94, Pesce looks back at his incomparable and wildly inventive career, recounting his life and practice in his own words. Glenn Adamson is a curator and writer who works at the intersection of craft, design history, and contemporary art. He was previously director of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; head of research at the V&A; and curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. Adamson contributes regularly to Art in America and Frieze, and his many publications include Objects: USA 2020 (Monacelli, 2021) and Fewer Better Things (2018).

By: Glenn Adamson

Published in: June 2023 by The Monacelli Press

Pages: 304

Material: Hardcover

ISBN: 9781580935999

Gaetano Pesce, architect, artist and designer, in forty years of career has carried out public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia in the fields of architecture, urban planning, interior design, industrial and exhibition design, driven by a constant tension towards innovation and experimentation. Born in La Spezia in 1939, Pesce studied architecture at the University of Venice and wrote a manifesto in his youth in defense of the right to inconsistency in art, the need to change, to be free, not to repeat ourselves. The boundaries between art, design and industry become irrelevant in his production, because even art is a product, it is the creative response to the needs of the time in which we live. His continuous research in the field of advanced materials, languages ​​and technology has resulted in iconic productions such as the Up series (1969), composed of seven examples of seats with voluptuous shapes, including the Up5_6 armchair, the first product of industrial design called to convey a political message, to denounce the condition of women in the world. Pesce's multidisciplinary work is represented in the permanent collections of the most important museums in the world including the MoMa and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Vitra Museum in Germany and the Montreal Museum of Art, to name a few. His approach to design has marked its history and his works have been celebrated in exhibitions of extraordinary importance. Numerous companies produce his projects.

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