One of the most successful interiors innovators of his time, Ceasare ‘Joe’ Colombo was - in his 1960s heyday - the living embodiment of this Italian stereotype.
Combining modernist elegance, industrial know-how and pioneering use of materials, Colombo’s mark on the face of contemporary design has been rendered truly indelible.
The latest portion of a touring Colombo retrospective will this month open at the Grassi Museum of applied art in Leipzig. Split into four parts, the show is a comprehensive deconstruction of this enigmatic designer’s tragically short career.
Spanning his beginnings in the early 1950s through to his all-encompassing interiors visions of the late 1960s – Colombo’s ample legacy could not have hoped for a more suitable salutation.
Sky-searching futurist that he was, Colombo was the first designer to mould a chair in one entire piece. Renowned for his multicoloured, super-curved and ultramodern vision - Colombo was a producer of, in his own words, ‘machines for living’.
With televisions in ceilings, pivoting walls and pop-up mini-bars abound, Colombo’s James Bond inspired interiors (whilst certainly hovering on the kitsch side) are enjoying a deserved renaissance – the quality and clarity of Colombo’s creative vision precedes any of our more modish prejudices – and rightly so.

INFORMATION
Event dates
3 April 2009 to 28 June 2009
Website
http://www.grassimuseum.de
Telephone
49.34 1222 9104
Address
Grassi Museum of applied art
Johannisplatz 5-11
D – 04103 Leipzig
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