ARTWORK OF THE DAY – Collier Ettore Sottsass

“If anything will save us, it’s beauty.”

Ettore Sottsass’ credo of having to create things with beauty and sensuality was the star designer, architect and universal artist’s inspiration for his prominent and diverse object designs: be it his furniture collections for Poltrona Frau (1965), the Valentine portable typewriter for Olivetti (1968), the 5070 salt shaker for Alessi (1978), the Carlton bookcase for Memphis (later Vitra) (1981) or the Callimaco floor lamp for Artemide (1982), for his poetic-minimalist object sculptures as well as for his ideas as the head of the Memphis design collective in the 1980s. During his long career, Sottsass experimented with many disciplines. Today, his fascinating oeuvre shapes and enriches everyday life.

Sottsass has been designing jewellery since the 1960s. This piece combines jewellery, art and sculpture into one. The 18-carat gold necklace with turquoises takes its wearer back to the ultra-modern Swinging Sixties. It was created by the Milanese goldsmith Gian Carlo Montebello, founder of GEM-Montebello, who made a name for himself by producing jewellery designed by important Italian and international artists in addition to his own designs. Remarkable designs were created by Lucio Fontana, Piero Dorazio, Alighiero Boetti, Sonja Delaunay, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jesús-Rafael Soto and, of course, Ettore Sottsass.