The Planet as Festival: Study for a Large Dispenser of Waltzes, Tangos, Rock, and Cha-Cha, project (Perspective)
Ettore Sottsass
Italian, born Austria. 1917–2007
1972-73
A 1972–73 graphite-on-paper perspective by Ettore Sottsass that imagines a theatrical, otherworldly landscape populated by bulbous, machine-like dispensers that promise to emit waltzes, tangos, rock, and cha-cha—a playful proposal to rethink how objects might stage everyday life.
You first notice the precise pencil grid overhead and the long dangling cables leading your eye to rounded, tiered dispenser-forms sitting in a gently undulating terrain, where meticulous shading gives the scene a strange mix of mechanical clarity and dreamlike distance.
The drawing exemplifies Sottsass’s turn away from strict functionalism toward narrative, ornament and consumer spectacle, anticipating the postmodern design ideas he helped popularize by merging architecture, object-making, and theatrical irony.
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
16 1/2 x 13 3/8" (41.9 x 34 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation
Accession
1305.2000
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
