How Milan became the capital of 20th century design

T he sale of works by Milanese architect and furniture designer Osvaldo Borsani (1911-1985) offers the opportunity to consider the remarkable influence that Italian – and Milanese – design has had on the development of design from the 20th century from the present day.

The furnishings designed and created by Borsani include several key pieces that highlight his keen emphasis on craftsmanship, his attention to detail and quality at every stage of the production process and his ability to recognize and meet the needs of an entrepreneurial postwar middle class who saw the home as a means of social representation. These qualities can be seen in items such as the
Osvaldo Borsani Dining Table in mahogany with Candoglia marble, with marble inlays and brass – a bespoke commission, as is the stunning Osvaldo Borsani Bar Cabinet, (model n. 6585) in mahogany, brass, lead, hardstone and glass, which ably demonstrates his background – and exquisite skills – in cabinet making.

Born in Varedo in Lombardy, some 15km north of Milan, Borsani studied fine art followed by architecture, both in Milan, graduating in 1936. He began his career by collaborating with his father, producing fine cabinetry with European Art Deco influences for the family business, which he renamed Arredamenti Borsani. At this time, he also began to collaborate with close friends, including the artist-designers Lucio Fontana, Agenore Fabbri, Arnaldo and Gio Pomodoro. A fine example of this period is the Lucio Fontana Ceramic With Light, circa 1954-55, an intriguing study in painted ceramic, painted wood, brass and metal that typically blurs the line between sculpture and furniture and was commissioned directly in cooperation with Arredamenti Borsani.

Borsani’s importance is in providing a link between artisan culture and contemporary design, echoing the wider story of Milan’s influence on the design world – a city steeped in the history of 20th century Italian design, as Elena Checchi, a Sothebys Director and Specialist in charge of the Milan sale, notes. ‘We think of Milan as Italy’s industrial capital, but many of these designs were still produced in an artisanal setting, with the industry in mind in the 1950s.’ Thanks to the manufacturing expertise in the Lombardy region and the thriving middle class at this time, the combination of artist-makers, entrepreneurs, academic institutions and production knowhow produced a creative laboratory centred around Milan, where experimentation was actively encouraged.

This story is told through a selection of works by Italian design masters, spanning from the Rationalist architects Giuseppe Pagano, Gino Levi Montalcini and Piero Bottoni – whose Wingback Lounge Chair in lacquered wood and fabric, created for the Boffito house in Milan in 1936, is the epitome of pre-war craftsmanship, hinting at the clean, Modernist lines of future generations of designers. A spirit of collaboration and creative competitiveness, with new ideas, materials and methods spurring designers on to greater heights, is a feature of Milanese design. A fine example of this is the Giò Ponti and Pietro Chiesa Console with Mirror – one of the first collaborations between the two designers and a fine example of Fontana Arte’s production from the early 1930s – produced in very small numbers by commission only.

Alongside Borsani, Ponti was another figure heralding a new era of explosive creativity in the 1950s, coupled with a refreshing entrepreneurial spirit. It’s notable that, around the time of the private residence project, Borsani was hatching the idea for TECNO, a firm he launched with his twin brother Fulgenzio in 1953 which – as the name suggests – embraced a more technological and research-based approach to furniture design. Also key to this period were designers including Gino Sarfatti (whose distinctively sleek Floor Light, produced circa 1950-52 in lacquered aluminium, brass and marble, boasts an iconic silhouette) and Ignazio Gardella (his Bookcase in walnut and brass was a special commission, designed by Gardella for one of his apartment projects in via Cimarosa, Milan, circa 1950) and Ico Parisi (whose Pair of Armchairs, designed in 1952 in velvet upholstery with brass legs and frame, was presented with different feet at the 30th Fiera Campionaria, Milan).

The economic boom of the 1950s saw Milanese design take centre stage as the collaborative spirit extended to burgeoning new businesses: firms such as Olivetti, Cassina, Venini, Necchi and Danese became, in effect, patrons for these talents of real genius. The Giò Ponti Proteo table lamp from 1967 for instance, was produced by Sagim, a small lighting company in the neighbouring Veneto region, shows how ambitions new firms were embracing new thinking. One of only a few known existing examples, this characteristic lamp uses a tiered sheet metal shade to produce a gradual dispersal of light – a rare example of Ponti’s ‘architectonic’ forms.

By the mid-1970s, Italian design was gaining international acclaim, thanks in part to the 1972 MoMa exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, curated by Emilio Ambasz, which presented both established and new talent, pointing to a future that reflected the changing, post-industrial global society.

In the early 1980s, this expanded into an era of postmodern experimental freedom, epitomised by the Memphis group, which was founded in the apartment of Ettore Sottsass on Via San Galdino. From the Borsani residence to Sottsass, the story of Italian design presents the domestic setting as a space for radical thought, where the ideas of form and function explode into vibrant, challenging life. A rare later example of this ingeniousness is the Ingo Maurer Heart Attack light installation in lacquered metal, aluminium, steel, and plastic with glass mirror. This was a special commission by the current owner (circa 1997-8), inspired by the One from the Art table light that Ingo Maurer designed in 1989, and is the only wall/ceiling mounted version of its type realised (Maurer also made two other variations of this design, but as suspended lights).

Milan’s influence on the world of design is thanks to a rare marriage of often conflicting: where practical solutions are applied to avant-garde thought; where new materials and production processes become the precursors to experimentalism; where realising the idea is everything.

Past Auction

Design Edit Milan

21–27 June 2022 | 6:00 PM CEST | Milan