Un racconto lungo 55 pagine

Breve storia dell’architettura e del design italiano per il pubblico americano

Abstract

The essay aims to highlight the importance of the Historical articles within the catalogue Italy: the New Domestic Landscape (1972), not yet highlighted by the bibliography on the subject. In just 55 pages, the critics, chosen by the editor Emilio Ambasz, succeeded in telling the American public the history of Italian design, retracing its most significant stages. If Ambasz’s intentions were to fill a historical gap in the United States, the shortlist of theorists chosen for the occasion – Paolo Portoghesi, Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, Leonardo Benevolo and Vittorio Gregotti – further clarifies this assumption, showing a somewhat unprecedented aspect of the well-known exhibition. In fact, each of them represents an authoritative voice within that theoretical and academic research that runs parallel to the production and history of design. A history made by designers and companies that would, however, risk remaining misunderstood without an adequate critical apparatus.