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Enzo Mari

エンツォ・マリ

Enzo Mari

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1932-04-27 （Novara）
Died
2020-10-19 （Milan） age 88
Nationality
Italian
Languages
Italian
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Novara, Italy (birth) → Milan, Italy

Career

Occupations
industrial designer, modernist artist, furniture designer, professor
Active Years
1956-2020
Affiliations
Danese
Influenced By
Arts and Crafts movement

Education

Brera Academy
Fine Arts
Period: 1952-1956
Year of Graduation: 1956
Country: Italy
Studied fine arts

Awards

Compasso d'Oro
1967
Work: individual research in design
Organization: Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI)
Result: 受賞
Compasso d'Oro
1979
Work: Delfina chair
Organization: Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI)
Result: 受賞
Compasso d'Oro
1987
Work: Tonietta chair
Organization: Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI)
Result: 受賞
Compasso d'Oro
2001
Work: Legato table
Organization: Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI)
Result: 受賞
Honorary Royal Designer for Industry
2000
Organization: Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
Result: 受賞
Honorary Degree in Industrial Design
2002
Organization: Politecnico di Milano
Result: 授与
Compasso d'Oro Career Award
2011
Organization: Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI)
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Autoprogettazione?

1974 Design book

A book with plans and instructions for DIY construction of 19 furniture items using common materials, in reaction to mass production.

DIYcritique of mass productionself-construction

16 animali

1957 Puzzle

Puzzle featuring 16 animals for Danese.

animalseducation

Timor perpetual calendar

1967 Design object

Perpetual calendar for Danese.

functionalityminimalism

The Apple and the Butterfly

Picture book

Wordless illustrated book with wife Iela Mari about a caterpillar and an apple.

naturegrowth

Bibliography

  • Autoprogettazione? (1974)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
minimalistform-focusedpolitical
Recurring Motifs
formaccessibilitysocial change

Health

  • COVID-19
    2020
    Cause of death. Wife died the next day from it.

Legacy

Influential Italian modernist artist and furniture designer who impacted generations of industrial designers. Works in MoMA. Donated design archive to Milan (not to be shown for 40 years).

Academic Societies

  • Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI)

Archives

  • City of Milan (design archive, not to display for 40 years)

Quotes

  • Form is everything.
    Source: The New York Times (2008)
  • Design is dead.
    Source: The New York Times (2008)
  • I want to create models for a different society.
    Source: Interview
  • When I design an object and people say: 'Oh, well done!', I unfailingly ask myself, Where did I go wrong? ... If everybody likes it, it means I have confirmed the existing reality and this is precisely what I don’t want.
    Source: Disegno Journal

Trivia

  • Was a communist.
  • First wife Iela Mari was a children's book illustrator; they had two children, one is writer Michele Mari.
  • Second wife Lea Vergine was an art critic who died the day after him from COVID-19.
  • Created a portfolio of more than 2,000 works.