Italian beauty: a new show celebrates the career of Mario Bellini

Our Mario Bellini flag showing the designer aged 21 and today, with his sketch of a cabinet of inspiring curiosities for his new exhibition at the Milan Triennale. Archive image: Mario Bellini Archives
Our Mario Bellini flag showing the designer aged 21 and today, with his sketch of a cabinet of inspiring curiosities for his new exhibition at the Milan Triennale. Archive image: Mario Bellini Archives
(Image credit: Mario Bellini)

Mario Bellini’s long and distinguished career spans design brands and counter-trends. As a designer who grew up in the austerity of post-war Italy, then began his career at the height of Pop and the Italian industrial boom, Bellini would be forgiven for an unrooted eclecticism. Yet what defines his work (still in progress) is a commitment to a sense of place and a sense of beauty, but bound up with a functional rigour that transcends shifts in the way we interact with places and things.

As his ‘Italian Beauty’ exhibition opens at the Milan Triennale, it’s perhaps time to take stock and celebrate a lifetime in design. This is not a retrospective, according to Bellini, but a ‘prospective’, and the 1,200 sq m show takes you through a career spanning six decades. The space is a stage for Bellini’s many and varied products, from chairs to typewriters to lamps, with seating areas placed before vast screens to give an impressive, immersive insight into a suite of his studio’s best-known buildings.

Bellini designed this Milan showroom for Cassina in 1968.

(Image credit: Bellini)

Bellini can lay claim to being one of the progenitors of modern technological style, together with other precursors like Dieter Rams and Jacob Jensen. During his long and fruitful collaboration with Olivetti, he reshaped the office landscape into a playful, colourful space that banished the tans and greys of the dominant IBM approach. And where Rams brought a Northern European austerity to consumer design, Bellini has always headed in a more humanist, playful direction.

‘Italian Beauty’ begins with a vast cabinet of curiosities containing objects and memorabilia that have inspired Bellini, including pieces by Gio Ponti and Issey Miyake – historical fragments of memory, art and literature. ‘I’ve designed furniture, objects, machines, buildings,’ Bellini says. ‘So to design an exhibition about myself is to go back to something I did at the very start of my career. But it’s also more special and challenging.’

An archival advertisement for Olivetti typewriters

An archival advertisement for Olivetti typewriters

(Image credit: Olivetti typewriters)

Bellini was born in 1935. Exceptionally talented at sketching from a young age, thanks to the encouragement of a grandfather, he spent five years studying at Milan’s polytechnic, graduating in 1959 and beginning his career as primarily an exhibition and product designer. In Olivetti, he found a client that shared his love of detail. In Bellini, Olivetti found a designer who could simplify its increasingly complex wares and give them a seductive yet friendly appearance. Their collaborations included the legendary ‘Programma 101’ of 1964, an impressive calculating machine that many consider to be the first desktop computer.

The Olivetti partnership made Bellini a major force in industrial design, whose works were collected by MoMA and who was eagerly sought by other clients, such as Cassina (for whom he designed showrooms), Vitra and B&B Italia. His guiding principle is to combine functionality with finesse – or ‘dreaming and doing’, as he describes what he learnt in his student days. ‘You have to be talented to answer needs and yet end up with beauty,’ he says. ‘Needs, functions, materials, costs and rules all have to come together. But beauty also comes too. To create a simple object you need grace and poetic beauty.’

A photograph from Bellini’s US road trip in 1972

A photograph from Bellini's US road trip in 1972

(Image credit: press)

Throughout his career, Bellini has always looked further afield, drawing inspiration from other cultures and approaches, including the design communities in Japan and Northern Europe. He has also had a long and favourable relationship with the US, a country he explored in a 1972 road trip after his participation in a MoMA exhibition on the Italian design scene (see W*199).

In the late 1980s, Bellini was a pioneering editor of Domus at a time of a great renaissance in Italian product design and architecture, and his profile was buoyed by a 1987 MoMA retrospective. His career has also spanned social and technological change, but he has never lost sight of the emotional component of design. ‘Whenever we design something we look for beauty – it’s a very delicate thing that connects you to the world through your senses. Beauty is a way of communicating meaning – something that connects with you and moves you.’ Bellini is now an elder statesman of modern design, but his work continues to surprise and delight.

The exhibition begins with a cabinet of curiosities full of Bellini’s designs, and continues in the same vein, packed with furniture, technology, branding and architecture. Photography: Gianluca Di Loia

The exhibition begins with a cabinet of curiosities full of Bellini’s designs, and continues in the same vein, packed with furniture, technology, branding and architecture.

(Image credit: Gianluca Di Loia)

The exhibition graphics have been designed by Milan based brand design and visual communication studio, Zetalab. Photography: Gianluca Di Loia

The landmark exhibition stretches across 1,200 sq m guiding visitors through Bellini’s fascinating six decade career

(Image credit: Gianluca Di Loia)

The landmark exhibition stretches across 1,200 sq m guiding visitors through Bellini’s fascinating six decade career. Photography: Gianluca Di Loia

The landmark exhibition stretches across 1,200 sq m guiding visitors through Bellini’s fascinating six decade career

(Image credit: : Gianluca Di Loia)

Bellini’s designs reshaped the office landscape. He designed this furniture range, ’Pianeta Ufficio’, for Marcatré Spa in 1974

Bellini’s designs reshaped the office landscape. He designed this furniture range, ’Pianeta Ufficio’, for Marcatré Spa in 1974

(Image credit: press)

Installation view of Bellini’s 1987 exhibition at the MoMA in New York

Installation view of Bellini’s 1987 exhibition at the MoMA in New York

(Image credit: press)

Bellini at his Milan Convention Centre, completed in 2012. Part of the 15,000 sq m silvery canopy roof tapers to the ground behind him. Photography: Albrecht Fuchs

Bellini at his Milan Convention Centre, completed in 2012. Part of the 15,000 sq m silvery canopy roof tapers to the ground behind him. 

(Image credit: Albrecht Fuchs)

The Milan Convention Centre at night

The Milan Convention Centre at night

(Image credit: press)

The ’Teneride’ chair for Cassina, 1970. Photography: Falchi Salvador

The ’Teneride’ chair for Cassina, 1970.

(Image credit: Falchi Salvador)

Many consider the ‘Programma 101’ – an impressive calculating machine launched in 1964 by Olivetti – as the first desktop computer

Many consider the ‘Programma 101’ – an impressive calculating machine launched in 1964 by Olivetti – as the first desktop computer

(Image credit: press)

Mario Bellini’s chair designs on display at ’Italian Beauty’. Photography: Gianluca Di Loia

Mario Bellini’s chair designs on display at ’Italian Beauty’.

(Image credit: Gianluca Di Loia)

Located in North Carolinia, the Natuzzi headquarters was built between 1996 and 1998. Photography: Aaron Acosta

Located in North Carolinia, the Natuzzi headquarters was built between 1996 and 1998. 

(Image credit: Aaron Acosta)

The exhibition and congress centre Villa Erba in Como, Italy, was built between 1986-1990. Photography: Enzo Pifferi

The exhibition and congress centre Villa Erba in Como, Italy, was built between 1986-1990.

(Image credit: Enzo Pifferi)

Sketch for the Centro Interculturale della Città di Torino

Sketch for the Centro Interculturale della Città di Torino

(Image credit: press)

Bellini was a pioneering editor of Domus in the late 1980s, the time of a great renaissance in Italian product design and architecture

Bellini was a pioneering editor of Domus in the late 1980s, the time of a great renaissance in Italian product design and architecture

(Image credit: press)

The classic Brionvega range of electronics

The classic Brionvega range of electronics

(Image credit: press)

Bellini describes the ’Italian Beauty’ exhibition as a ‘prospective’ instead of a ‘retrospective’. Photography: Gianluca Di Loia

Bellini describes the ’Italian Beauty’ exhibition as a ‘prospective’ instead of a ‘retrospective’.

(Image credit: Gianluca Di Loia)

’Divisumma 18’ electronic printing calculator, 1973. Photography: Ezio Frea

’Divisumma 18’ electronic printing calculator, 1973

(Image credit: Ezio Frea)

Render of the forthcoming the Qatar Fifa World Champions stadium

Render of the forthcoming the Qatar Fifa World Champions stadium

(Image credit: press)

Cassina’s ’Cab 412’ lounge chair, launched in 1977

Cassina’s ’Cab 412’ lounge chair, launched in 1977

(Image credit: press)

The ’Opera Tonda’ table from Meritalia

The ’Opera Tonda’ table from Meritalia

(Image credit: press)

The playful display of the new exhibition communicates the essence of Bellini’s bold and progressive style. The art work for the exhibition poster, banner and catalogue cover have been designed by designer Leonardo Sonnoli. Photography: Gianluca Di Loia

The playful display of the new exhibition communicates the essence of Bellini’s bold and progressive style. The art work for the exhibition poster, banner and catalogue cover have been designed by designer Leonardo Sonnoli.

(Image credit: Gianluca Di Loia, Leonardo Sonnoli)

INFORMATION

‘Italian Beauty’, curated by Deyan Sudjic, is on view until 19 March. For more information, visit the Milan Triennale website

Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.