Kartell. The culture of plastic.

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Kartell. The culture of plastic.

Feb 28, 2013 | gift ideas, people, producer |

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Kartell made plastic cool. Established in 1949 by chemical engineer Giulio Castelli, the company distinguished itself with such designers as Gino Colombini and Anna Castelli Ferrieri. It teamed up with many of the name designers from the golden age of Italinan design in the 1950s and 1960s. It became known in the US, particularly for work by Joe Colombo at the landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Italy: the New Domestic Landscape in 1969.

The Kartell items included in The New Domestic Landscape were among the most practical and accessible in a show that sometimes verged into counterculture utopianism. The company was purchased by fashion industry veteran Claudio Luti and given renewed life. In the last few years, Kartell established polycarbonate as a key material and explored its possibilities of color and transparency. The most recent stellar examples of Kartell products include Ron Arad’s Bookworm bookshelf and Philippe Starck’s Ghost chair.

Now Taschen has done a book on the firm, PLASTIC CULTURE with text by Elisa Storace, curator of the Kartell museum just outside of Milan—who knew? [ kartell ] [ taschen ]

| ron arad’s bookworm shelf on wall | kartell’s paris showroom

phillipe starck | ghost chair

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about Phil Patton

Phil Patton is a contributing editor at Departures and Esquire magazines, a contributing writer at Wired and an automotive design writer for The New York Times. He was a regular contributor to The New York Times House and Home section and, in 1998, originated the “Public Eye” column. He has written many books including: Made in USA: The Secret History of the Things That Made America (Grove-Weidenfeld, 1992), which was named a New York Times notable book of the year; Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile (Simon & Schuster, 2002); Michael Graves Designs: The Art of the Everyday Object (Melcher, 2004); and Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51 (Villard, 1998). He has also written for Art in America, ARTnews, Connoisseur, Geo, Harper’s Bazaar, Men’s Journal, The New Republic, New York Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, Traveler, The Village Voice and Vogue. Patton was Editorial Consultant on the Guggenheim Museum’s “Motorcycle” show in 1998 and Consulting Curator for the “Different Roads” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1999. In 2000 he was consultant and contributor for “On the Job: Design and the American Office” at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

view all entries by Phil Patton.

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