Italian Arch/Designer Ettore Sottsass - So Expansive in Styles & Mediums it's a Mishmash Exhibit

Ettore Sottsass (b Austria 1917 - 2007) is an iconic & prolific architect & designer of the 20th C.  He was born in Austria but received his education & training in Italy.  Sottsass created masses of architectural drawings, many of which became major buildings.  He is also well known for his avant garde furniture designs; several of his iconic pieces are on view in the Met Breuer's show "Design Radical."  Nonetheless, there is more on the top floor by other artists that I couldn't help wonder why the MET didn't attribute the show to artists & artifacts that had a major impact on Sottsass' own designs.  The expansive Rauschenberg now at the MoMA is aptly titled "Among Friends."  The compilation of antiquities, drawings, textiles and paintings are so interspersed as to displace the Sottsass' work.  Some of the prominent artists of the 20th C whose works are included (and likely appropriated) are Judd, Lichtenstein, Gottlieb, Mondrian, Kandinsky & Kuramata to name but a sampling.  Most noticeably missing is Warhol who pop art "Brillo Boxes" and "Campbell Soup Cans" were precursors to Sottsass' consumerism designs.  The red valentine Olivetti typewriter is the heart of the show & the key reason to go.  Having just seen the film "CA Typewriter" Sottsass' original prototype was fascinating as was Sottsass' comment on his creation.  "I worked 60 years of my life, and it seems the only thing I did is this fucking red machine.  And it came out a mistake.  It was supposed to be very inexpensive & portable to sell in the market.  Then the people at Olivetti said you cannot sell this"  (1993). Perhaps, there may be renewed interest in mass producing the only item Sottsass credits for himself.  Still, Sottsass was also influenced by ancient antiquities, religious artifacts & various cultures from Buddhism & Christianity dating bake to the 3rd C and objects by the Hopi Indian tribes.    Two other groupings I found compelling were the industrial ceramic totems that resemble nuclear missiles and his whimsical, yet surprisingly functional furniture pieces.  The Carleton Room Divider (1981) resembled a child poised as if king of the hill and his "Cabinet de Curiositie" (1988) which has a suspended in air aesthetic.  Sottsass' designs commissioned for it "MoMA's 1972 exhibit "Italy - The New Domestic Landscape," felt forced & disingenuous.  "I mean designs dropped without explanation into the midst of millions of other designs, the logic and connections of which will never be known to me."  (ES) The overall sense I got from the show is being dropped within massive flotsam & jetsam and needing to come up for air.  The MET Breuer would like have to make their stop at the gift store for "limited edition items designed by Sottsass.