Gaetano Pesce

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L'Organic Building (1993) a Osaka

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Organic building - Osaka

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Up chair, designed for C&B Italia (now B&B Italia), 1969

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I Feltri, designed for Cassina (1987)

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Gaetano pesce, vassoio in resina 03

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Divano modulabile (2005) ispirato del tipico pane soffiato milanese

Gaetano Pesce (born 1939) is an Italian architect and designer.

Biography

Gaetano Pesce was born in La Spezia in 1939. He studied Architecture at the University of Venice, and between 1958 to 1963, he participated in Gruppo N, an early collective concerned with programmed art patterned after the Bauhaus. During a career that spans four decades, Pesce has completed commissions in architecture, urban planning, interior, exhibition and industrial design throughout the world. He taught architecture, for 28 years, at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) (National Institute of Applied Sciences) in Strasbourg, France, and later at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Domus Academy, Milan, the City University of Hong Kong, China, Escola da Cidade, (AEAUSP), (Architectural School of São Paulo), Brazil, and in New York, where he has lived since 1980, as Visiting Professor of architecture at the Cooper Union, and Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

The architecture and design of Gaetano Pesce has been published worldwide. Architecture critic Herbert Muschamp described Pesce as "the architectural equivalent of a brainstorm." His most well known building is Organic Building in Osaka, Japan. Influential commissioned works include projects for Les Halles ACIH, (1979) and Parc de la Villette (1985), Paris, France; and Church of Solitude Project (1974-77), New York, N.Y. His work has been collected by the MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Victoria and Albert Museum, Vitra Design Museum, Germany, the Museum of the Milan Triennale, Danish Museum of Art & Design, Copenhagen, and the Centre Pompidou and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France.

Industrial Design

Since the 1960s, Pesce has challenged excepted notions of Modernism with functional, imperfect, warm Industrial Design with new techniques for mass production for companies such as Vitra, Cassina, and since 1962, "The UP-Series" for B&B Italia (formerly C & B Italia). Pesce's designa have received international acclaim. He has innovated methodology known as diversified series production, a process by which mass-produced objects have a handmade one of a kind look. Pesce developed a thesis of the impossibility of perfect design through projects such as the "Nobody's Perfect" chair. In 2010, he created for Cassina, a series of 60 tables, which form a distinctive boot shape, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. Experimenting with new materials such as resin has become his signature. In 2014, a retrospective exhibition The Time of Diversity, at the MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome, charted Pesce's artful industrial productions from the 1960s to the present.

Architecture Projects, selected

• 1980: Late Entries to the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition, II.
• 1983: Project for rehabilitation of the Lingotto, Turin, Italy,for the Fiat group
• 1984: la Maison des enfants au Parc de la Villette, Paris, France
• 1986: Hubin Apartment, Paris
• 1991: TBWA\Chiat\Day offices in New York
• 1993: Organic Building, Osaka, Japan
• 1994: Shuman Residence, New York
• 1994: Art Gallery. Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium
• 1994: Bahia House, Brazil

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" 09 - ITALY - TDM - Red armchair - Serie UP (UP5 and UP6) Gaetano Pesce chairs and B&B Italia at Triennale Design Museum

Solo Exhibitions

• 1983: Gaetano Pesce : a Yale School of Architecture Exhibition.
• 1986: Gaetano Pesce 1975-1985. Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, France.
• 1988: Gaetano Pesce: Drawings, Models, Prototypes. Max Protetch Gallery, New York
• 1988: Modern Times Again. Steelcase Design Partnership, New York, N.Y.
• 1991: Gaetano Pesce. Collaborative Exhibition. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel Peter Joseph Gallery, New York
• 1996: Gaetano Pesce Le temps des questions, retrospective. Forum of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.
• 1997: Gaetano Pesce, Material Connection, New York, N.Y.
• 1997: Currents 69: GAETANO PESCE. Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO.
• 1999: Gaetano Pesce: The Presence of the Objects. Columbia GSAPP, Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.
• 2002: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
• 2005: Gaetano Pesce: Pushing the Limits. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
• 2005: Gaetano Pesce: Il rumore del tempo. Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy.
• 2005: H2O. Gaetano Pesce. Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM)
• 2007: Pink Pavilion di Gaetano Pesce, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
• 2010: Gaetano Pesce: Pieces from a Larger Puzzle. Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, California.
• 2011: L’Italia in Croce di Gaetano Pesce. Venice Biennale In The World, Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale.

and Galeria, Italian Cultural Institute of New York.

• 2013: Gaetano Pesce: L'Abbraccio. Fred Torres Collaborations, New York
• 2013: Gaetano Pesce Retrospective. Collective.1 Design Fair, Pier 57, New York, N.Y.
• 2014: Gaetano Pesce: Il tempo della diversità. una retrospettiva, MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome.
• 2014:Transforming Reality: Italian Design Innovation and Fantasy. Eagle Gallery, Cafesjian Museum of Art, Armenia
• 2014: Gaetano Pesce: Retrospective. Sotheby Gallery, Charpentier, Paris, France.
• 2015: Frammenti e figure architettoniche ai quattro angoli del mondo. Galleria Antonia Jannone, Milano, Italy.
• 2015: Gaetano Pesce: ‘One of a Kind Iconic Works, 1967-2015. Allouche Gallery, New York
• 2015: Gaetano Pesce: For Her. Reinstein Ross Gallery, 30 Gansevoort Street, NYC
• 2015: Performance nell’installazione : La Cucina Luogo di Passione. Triennale Design Museum, Milano
• 2015: Gaetano Pesce: Frammenti e figure architettoniche ai quattro angoli del mondo. Galleria Antonia Jannone, Milan, Italy
• 2016: Fish Design Maison & Objet, Paris

Group Exhibitions and programs

• 1972: The New Domestic Landscape: Achievements and Problems of Italian Design. The Museum of Modern Art, May 26 to September 11, 1972.

Architecture on Film: Italy – The New Domestic Landscape, MoMA, 1972 + Q&A with Gaetano Pesce and Peter Lang.

• 1975: The Future Is Perhaps Past. Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France.
• 1979: Transformations in Modern Architecture. MoMA, New York.
• 1986: L'eau en formes (Water forms): Vittel Design 86. Centre Georges Pompidou, France.
• 1995: Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design. Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
• 1997: Designed for Delight: Alternative aspects of twentieth-century decorative arts. traveling exhibition.

Canadian Museum of History; Cincinnati Art Museum, OH; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada;

Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France.

• 1998: International New Glass 1998: Venezia aperto vetro. Fortuny Museum, Doge's Palace,

and Istituto Statale d'Arte di Venezia, Venice, Italy.

• 2003: Inside Design Now. Triennial of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, N.Y.
• 2003: US Design: 1975-2000, traveling exhibition. Denver Art Museum, CO; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN; Bass Museum of Art, Miami;

Museum of Art & Design, (formerly American Craft Museum), New York, N.Y.

• 2008: Formless Furniture. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
• 2008: Dreamland: Architectural Experiments Since the 1970s. MoMA, New York, N.Y.
• 2012: Design Miami.
• 2013: Pop Art Design. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweeden.
• 2015: New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America, Museum of Arts and Design
• 2015: Kitchens & Invaders. VIII Triennale Design Museum, Viale Emilio Alemagna. Milan, Italy.

Professional Recognition

• 1975: Special Prize: Genesi? Fourth International Lighting Design Competition
• 1993: Chrysler Design Award for Innovation and Design.
• 1995: Interior Design Magazine Award for Umbrella chair.
• 2004: Good Design Award. The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture And Design
• 2005: Collab's Design Excellence Award. Philadelphia Museum of Art
• 2006: Designer of the Year. A&W Architektur und Wohnens, Cologne, Germany
• 2009: Lawrence J. Israel Prize. Interior Design Department of the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, N.Y.
• 2010: IIC Lifetime Achievement Award. Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles

External links

• Designboom interview with Pesce from 2000
• Icon magazine another interview, from September 2004
• MoMA Pesce objects in the collection
• New York Times article on Pesce's furniture
• Interior Design 2006 article on Pesce