20 - Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi (Milan 1931 – 1997 Milan), “Interno col Santo” (Architecture and Coffee Pot), 1978, Chinese ink wash on primed machine-made paper, monogrammed, dated, and titled in the lower right corner; the sheet is folded once in the center both vertically and horizontally; on the reverse, an exhibition label from Galerie Holzwarth, Stuttgart; 69 x 49 cm, mounted on a backing board and mounted under glass in a black-stained wooden frame with corner pieces, overall dimensions: 84.5 x 64.5 cm, limit 1,800, Exhibition: - Galerie Holzwarth, Stuttgart, Nov. 11 – Dec. 22, 1996, cat. no. 21. For Rossi, everyday objects such as coffee pots, clocks, or cups were nothing more than “miniature architectures.” He was fascinated by their geometric shapes (cones, cylinders, triangles). His designs for the Italian design manufacturer Alessi are famous, particularly the espresso makers “La Conica” (1984) and “La Cupola” (1988). In his drawings, he often depicted coffee pots on a gigantic scale—like buildings—next to real house facades or even inside interiors, in order to blur the boundaries between household objects and monuments and to create a transformation of design objects (coffee pot) in architectural space, as well as the metaphysical, almost theatrical composition of an interior with sacred references (col Santo). Rossi grew up in Catholic-dominated northern Italy and was deeply fascinated by sacred architecture and the figures of local saints—above all the monumental “Sancarlone,” the colossal statue of Saint Charles Borromeo in Arona. The term “col Santo” suggests that, in the interior, alongside the coffee pot and the architectural elements in the background, an altar-like structure is visible, as well as a view of a saint’s right hand—blessing and blending into the architecture—which is reminiscent of a relic of the saint’s arm. In his drawings from that period, Rossi frequently combined the private (Interno) with the sacred and the urban.