Pesce Time

Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 1/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

It's taken almost 40 years for Gaetano Pesce to come home. The architect, furniture designer, and sculptor left his native Italy in 1967, eventually moving to New York in 1980. During those expat years, he became known for designs as diverse as his Up armchair series, 1969, and the New York headquarters of TBWA/Chiat/Day, 1995. But he has never been honored by a retrospective in Italy.

Milan's Triennale finally comes to the rescue with "Gaetano Pesce: The Sound of Time." The show highlights objects, sketches, text, and videos divided into nine "chapters" that focus on recurring themes in Pesce's unconventional work; chapter titles include "Femininity and Masculinity as Driving Forces in Design," "Malformation and Canons of Beauty," and simply "Time." Visitors are guided through this wealth of material by Pesce himself, via Palmtop. January 22–April 18; 39-02-72-43-41; triennale.it.