Marcello Nizzoli

(b Boretto, Reggio Emilia, 2 Jan 1887; d Genoa, 31 July 1969). Italian designer, draughtsman and architect. After graduating from the Accademia di Belle Arti of Parma (1913), he worked as a draughtsman in Milan until World War I. The influence of Futurism and, particularly, the work of Fortunato Depero were fundamentally important in his cultural formation. His success as a draughtsman was established at the Primo Esposizione Internazionale delle Arti Decorative in Monza (1923), but he continued to diversify, designing fashion accessories such as handbags and shawls and poster advertisements for famous names such as Campari and Martini. During the 15 years after World War I Nizzoli demonstrated his remarkable talent for handling the most diverse forms of the avant-garde movements, from Futurism to Cubism, from the Viennese Secession style to Novecento Italiano, adapting them to the taste of his cultivated middle-class clientele. Nizzoli had already designed (with Fausto Melotti) mannequins for Baldessari's early Rationalist Craja Restaurant (1930) in Milan when he met Edoardo Persico (1931) who, with Giuseppe Pagano, had begun to transform the magazine Casabella into the main forum for architectural debate. Persico's theoretical approach complemented Nizzoli's more practical orientation, and some of the most significant artefacts of Italian Rationalism emerged from their collaboration.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Most widely known for his designs for office equipment manufacturer Olivetti, Nizzoli was an important figure in Italian design from the 1920s through to the 1960s. He worked in a number of fields including industrial design, graphic design, and architecture. After graduating in 1913 in architecture, painting, and decoration from the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma he exhibited paintings and embroideries at the Nuove tendenze exhibition of 1914. After the war his work in applied arts attracted attention at the 1923 exhibition of decorative arts in Monza, leading to a variety of commissions. From the mid-1920s he became involved with poster design for Bitter and Campari. From the early 1930s he worked with Eduardo Persico on a number of exhibitions and showrooms, including the Parker Showroon in Milan of 1934. In 1938 he was taken on by Adriano Olivetti to work in the company's advertising department. He soon became involved in product design, his first design being the MC 4S Summa calculating machine of 1940, produced in collaboration with an engineer Natale Capellaro, with whom he worked on other calculators including the Divisumma 14 of 1948. In the years immediately following the Second World War Nizzoli found his true métier with classic designs such as the sculptural, clean-formed Lexicon 80 office typewriter (1948, for which he also designed a poster in 1949), the elegant Lettera 22 portable (1950), and the Divisumma 24 calculator (1956). He also designed elegant products with an organic aesthetic for other companies such as Necchi, for whom he designed the Supernova BU and Mirella sewing machines of 1953 and 1957, both of which were awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1954 and 1957 respectively. Other commissions included cigarette lighters for Ronson (1959) and a cooker and petrol pump for Agip (1960). He was involved with the design of a number of office buildings and housing developments for Olivetti. Amongst many other prizes for his design he was awarded an honorary degree in architecture by Milan Polytechnic in 1966. Many of his products for Olivetti are included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Marcello Nizzoli (1887 - 1969) was an Italian artist and industrial designer. He was the chief designer for Olivetti for many years and was responable notably for the iconic Lettera 22 portable typewriter (1950).

External links

• Nizzoli collection at MOMA

This Italian artist-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)