Carlo Mollino: Arabesques (Macro Exhibition Catalogue) [Paperback]

Lisa Ponti (Author), Carmen Guerrero (Author), Fulvio Ferrari (Author), Carlo Mollino (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 8837048572 | ISBN-13: 978-8837048570 | Publication Date: August 31, 2009

Arabesques is a celebration of the life and achievements of Carlo Mollino (1905-1973)--architect, designer, author and photographer, and one of Italy's most extraordinary cultural innovators. In a 100 color and 80 black and white illustrations, and with commentary by an array of contemporary Mollino scholars, it examines his famously elegant furniture designs, a selection of his most iconic buildings, his wonderfully futuristic aeroplane and automobile designs and a portfolio of his photographic portraits of women. It reveals a man almost impossible to grasp in his entirety, with a ravenous intellect and a temperament both friendly and proud, whose work requires the attentions of several scholars--among them Lisa Ponti, Carmen Guererro and Fulvio Ferrari--to assess here. Yet Mollino's approach was itself often synthetic; his interiors (which were almost always commissioned) integrated his furniture, interior design and architecture towards a unified aesthetic environment, expressing a coherent aesthetic of elegance and energetic sinuousness. Arabesques makes sense of this rare instance of a true Renaissance man, and will sweep the reader up in Mollino's infectious energy and polymorphous genius.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mondadori Electa (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8837048572
• ISBN-13: 978-8837048570
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,280,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Selection of Carlo Mollino Work, July 26, 2010

By 

Guilherme Canta "Guilherme Canta" (Lisboa, Portugal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carlo Mollino: Arabesques (Macro Exhibition Catalogue) (Paperback)

In this book you will find a very good selection of Carlo Mollino's works, ranging from architecture to furniture design, and from car design to photography.
The photos are of very good quality, the organization of the book and the selection of themes are also very good.
The chapters include: Biography, Interiors, Architecture, Airplanes, Automobiles, Skiing and Photography.
Interior design and furniture design were probably the fields where Mollino got more recognition and that chapter is particularly excellent. The relation between Mollino's architecture and interior design is also explored in a very interesting way. There are plenty of photos and sketches, with some of Mollino's notes.
The other chapters concern his obsessions: cars, ski and airplanes. You can feel the intense enthusiasm of designing new machines, very typical of the modernism period.
Finally you will find Mollino's photography work, not so interesting in my opinion.
In short, excellent book with a panoramic view of Carlo Mollino work in the various fields.

Also very interisting:

The Furniture of Carlo Mollino (Monographs)

Carlo Mollino: Architecture as Autobiography, Revised and Expanded Edition