The Straw Donkey: Tourist Kitsch or Proto-Design?

Craft and Design in Italy, 1945-1960

Abstract

This paper focuses on the formative period of “Italian design” which, as documented subsequently by historians, reached its apogee in the early 1960s. It sets out to unpack the complex relationship between art, craft, artisanal production and design in these years concentrating on the role played by the third category in the early 1950s, especially as manifested in the exhibition Italy at Work. It seeks to recontextualize what was referred to, at the time, as “handicraft” or “folk art” within the economic and ideological framework of the period and to show its important role both in providing a necessary continuity and in enabling innovation of a certain kind to take place. An emphasis is placed on the role of the USA in these years and of individual architect-designers, especially Gio Ponti and Ettore Sottsass, who positioned themselves within current debates. The paper argues that the mature neo-modern Italian design movement took on board some of the defining characteristics of handicraft and that respect for tradition was crucial in the formation of the new aesthetic.

* First published in Journal of Design History, 11(1), 1998, pp. 59-69.