Wikipedia entry
Introduction
Alessandro Mendini (16 August 1931 – 18 February 2019) was an Italian designer and architect. He played an important part in the development of Italian, Postmodern, and Radical design. He also worked, aside from his artistic career, for Casabella, Modo and Domus magazines. The character of his design is marked by what was his strong interest in mixing different cultures and different forms of expression; he created graphics, furniture, interiors, paintings and architecture and also wrote several articles and books. He was renowned as an enthusiastic member of jury in architectural competitions for young designers. He taught at the University of Milan. Mendini was born in Milan. He graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 1959 with a degree in architecture and worked as a designer with Marcello Nizzoli. He was the editor-in-chief of Domus magazine from 1979 to 1985 and changed the landscape of modern design through his quintessential works of postmodernism, such as the Proust Armchair and the Groninger Museum. Just as works of the Renaissance period expressed human values and sensibilities, Mendini contributed to bringing into the heart of design those “values” and “sensibilities” that have been eclipsed by commercialism and functionalism. He collaborated with companies such as Cartier, Gufram, Hermès, Vacheron Constantin, Swarovski, Venini, and Supreme. From 1989 up until his death in Milan in 2019 he ran his own practice in Milan, the Atelier Mendini, together with his younger brother Francesco Mendini (b. 1939). In 2022, he was inducted into the 2022 MILAN Hall of Fame (FAMEDIO OF MILAN - MONUMENTAL CEMETERY). Previous inductees include opera maestro Giuseppe Verdi, aesthetician and novelist Umberto Eco, Gianni Versace, founder of the luxury fashion house Versace, and world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
Wikidata
Q772733
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Getty record
Introduction
Italian architect and designer active in Milan. He designed a variety of objects and architectural projects, and served as an influential editor of magazines including Casabella and Domus, from 1970.
Nationality
Italian
Gender
Male
Roles
Artist, Architect, Designer, Painter, Photographer
Name
Alessandro Mendini
Ulan
500013850
Information from Getty’s Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License

Works

6 works online

Exhibitions

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].