Introduzione al disegno industriale

by Gillo Dorfles

Si parla con sempre maggior interesse delle questioni relative alla produzione industriale, alla sua progettazione, al significato e al valore d'intervento culturale ed estetico in questi settori. Speciale interesse ciò assume se si considera che quella produzione investe ogni aspetto della vita sociale odierna e che, di conseguenza, ogni intervento in essa assume un'eco e una diffusione eccezionali. Meno chiari, nel dibattito recente, sono i punti di riferimento da cui iniziative ed esperienze muovono. Questo libro, che è da tempo un testo canonico, in modo piano ma nel rispetto della problematicità di ognuno, cerca di trovare tali punti, di coordinarli e di valutarne premesse, significati e conseguenze.

Genres: Design

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Born in Trieste to a Gorizian father and a Genoese mother, Dorfles graduated in medicine, specializing in psychiatry. He was a professor in aesthetics at the University of Trieste, Milan and Cagliari and, in 1948, established the MAC (Movimento per l'arte concreta) with artists Atanasio Soldati, Galliano Mazzon, Gianni Monnet, and Bruno Munari. His paintings were displayed in two personal exhibitions held in Milan in 1949 and 1950 and also in numerous collective MAC exhibitions in the 1950s. In 1956 Dorfles co-founded the ADI (Associazione per il disegno industriale).

Having stopped painting, he devoted himself to the study of aesthetics and art criticism, dealing with the problem of the vanguard, the relationship between art and industry, analizing artistic phenomena, and tastes in the contemporary society. According to Dorfles, aesthetics should focus on culture as a whole, which combine elements of fantasy, symbolic, metaphorical and even mythical suggestions. Among his major works, L'architettura moderna (1954), Kitsch (originally published in Italian in 1968 and translated in English the following year), La moda della moda (1984), Il feticcio quotidiano (1988), Horror pleni. La (in)civiltà del rumore (2008). In the same period, however, Dorfles continued to hold personal exhibitions: in 1986 his works were displayed in Milan, in 1988 in Aosta, and in 1996 in Rome.[3]

In 2010, for his 100th birthday celebrations, L'avanguardia tradita took place at the Royal Palace of Milan. Another exhibition was held in 2012 at the Milan Triennale, organized by Dorfles itself, entitled Dorfles. Kitsch - oggi il kitsch.[4]

At 103, Dorfles published a new book (Poesie, Campanotto Editore, 2013), containing previously unpublished poems written from 1941 to 1952.[5] In 2013 he was among the artists that designed the Tibetan pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale.[6]