Joe Colombo

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Joe Colombo (1969)

Joe Colombo , actually Cesare Colombo , (born July 30, 1930 in Milan , † July 30, 1971 ibid) was an Italian architect and industrial designer .

Career

Colombo studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. In the 1950s he belonged to the "Movimento Nucleare". In 1954 he organized the ceramics exhibition of the Xth Triennale in Milan. He studied architecture at Politecnica and opened a design studio in Milan in 1962. Colombo quickly became one of the most famous Italian designers in the 1960s. As early as 1969, some of his objects were permanently exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art . Colombo's theory of life in the future influenced his futuristic furniture designs, whose practical use was always in the foreground. Accordingly, Colombo saw itself as the designer of tomorrow's furnishings. His preferred material was plastic .

In the 1960s Colombo designed a large number of everyday objects and pieces of furniture, the design of which often reappeared as a quotation in the course of the "retro" wave since the 1990s. Joe Colombo's design utopia picks up on many of the hopes that prevailed in Italy and Europe in the 1960s, without remaining too firmly attached to ideological barriers. His so-called "dynamic pieces of furniture" were multi-purpose furniture or "living machines" that combine all the required functions and should be able to adapt to the respective architectural conditions. The former car dealer Colombo also repeatedly dealt with the subject of automobiles. He died unexpectedly of heart failure on his 41st birthday.

Well-known designs (selection)

Boby 3 trolley , 1970
  • Mini-Kitchen (compact kitchen ), 1963
  • Smoke (glass series), 1964
  • Elda (armchair), 1964
  • Spider (lamp), 1968
  • Universale (chair), 1965
  • Boby (trolley), 1970
  • Tube-Chair (armchair made of assembled tubes), 1970
  • Optic (alarm clock), 1970

Awards

  • 1964: XIII. Milan Triennial (three medals)
  • 1967: Compasso d'Oro
  • 1968: Design International Award

literature

  • Mateo Kries and Alexander von Vegesack (eds.): Joe Colombo. The invention of the future. Vitra-Design-Museum, Weil am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-931936-57-0 , catalog for the Colombo retrospective 2005/2006
  • Vittorio Fagone (eds.): I Colombo, Joe Colombo (1930–1971), Gianni Colombo (1937–1993), Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, 1995, ISBN 88-202-1117-3 , catalog on the creative and artistic work of the Colombo brothers

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Colombo, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Colombo, Cesare (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian architect and industrial designer
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1971
Place of death Milan