Gaetano Pesce (8 November 1939 – 3 April 2024) was an Italian architect and a design pioneer of the 20th century. Pesce was born in

La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...

in 1939, and he grew up in

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

and

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. During his 50-year career, Pesce worked as an architect, urban planner, and industrial designer. His outlook is considered broad and humanistic, and his work is characterized by an inventive use of color and materials, asserting connections between the individual and society, through art, architecture, and design to reappraise mid-twentieth-century modern life.

Architecture career

Pesce, born on 8 November 1939 in

, Italy, studied architecture at the

University of Venice Ca' Foscari University of Venice (), or simply Ca' Foscari, is a public research university and business school in Venice, Italy. Since its foundation in 1868, it has been housed in the Venetian Gothic palace of Ca' Foscari, from which it takes ...

, with such notable teachers as

Carlo Scarpa Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian architect and designer. He was influenced by the materials, landscape, and history of Venetian culture, as well as those of Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regiona ...

and Ernesto Rogers. Between 1958 and 1963, Pesce participated in Gruppo N, an early collective concerned with programmed art patterned after the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

. Since the 1960s, Gaetano Pesce has been known to relate art to the design of interiors, products, and architecture. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' critic

Herbert Muschamp Herbert Mitchell Muschamp (November 28, 1947 – October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic. Early years Born in Philadelphia, Muschamp described his childhood home life as follows: "The living room was a secret. A forbidden zone. ...

described Pesce as ''"the architectural equivalent of a brainstorm."'' Pesce's well known work includes ''Organic Building'' in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, Japan, a Landmark vertical garden building designed to concealing a complex, computer-controlled hydration system to sustain plant growth, and the interior architecture of the Chiat/Day offices, an early workplace ''village'' modeled after urban life. Among Pesce's architecture achievements are

Les Halles Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on 12 January 1973 and was replaced by an underground shopping centre and a park. The unpopular modernist development was demolished yet again in 2010, and replac ...

ACIH (1979) and

Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette () is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues ...

(1985), Paris, France, a complex of forms shaped like a running child. Pesce's prototypical three-dimensional models and architectural drawings are held in the permanent museum collections of

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, and the

Cooper-Hewitt Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facili ...

Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City; the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, PA;

San Francisco Museum of Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art, and has b ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

;

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, London;

Vitra Design Museum The Vitra Design Museum is a privately owned museum for design in Weil am Rhein, Germany. The architect of this building was Frank O. Gehry. His architecture was based on the art movement of the early 20th century, deconstructivism. Making the bu ...

, Germany;

Danish Museum of Art & Design The Designmuseum Denmark () is a museum in Copenhagen for Danish and international design and crafts. It features works of famous Danish designers like Arne Jacobsen, Jacob Jensen and Kaare Klint, who was one of the two architects who remodele ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

;

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

and

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris The Musée des Arts Décoratifs (, English: ''Museum of Decorative Arts'') is a museum in Paris, France, dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of the decorative arts. Located in the city’s 1st arrondissement, the museum occupies the P ...

, France, and the

Triennale The Triennale di Milano is a museum of art and design in the Parco Sempione in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the , built between 1931 and 1933 to designs by Giovanni Muzio and financed by Antonio Bernocchi and his ...

Museum,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy.

Architecture projects

* 1980: ''Late Entries to the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

Tower Competition II.'' * 1983: ''Project for rehabilitation of the Lingotto, Turin, Italy, for the Fiat group'' * 1984: ''la Maison des enfants au

, Paris, France'' * 1986: ''Hubin Apartment'', Paris * 1991: ''

TBWA\Chiat\Day TBWA\Chiat\Day ( ) is the American division of the advertising agency TBWA Worldwide. Created in the 1995 merger of TBWA and Chiat/Day, the agency operates offices in Los Angeles, New York City, Nashville, and Mexico City. Prior to the merger ...

Offices'', New York * 1993: ''Organic Building'', Osaka, Japan * 1994: ''Shuman Residence'', New York * 1994: ''Art Gallery.'' Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium * 1994: ''Bahia House, Brazil''

Industrial design

From the 1960s on, Pesce researched the function and form of utilitarian and decorative objects, including furniture, jewellery, and shoes, from the perspective of human emotion, environment, and production. Pesce is known for innovative high-minded modern design with wit and style. Pesce challenged accepted standards of abstraction, uniformity, and homogeneity. On the architect-designer, critic Susan Slesin wrote, "For Gaetano Pesce, to be modern is to face the world squarely and use design as a means to comment on it. Pesce expanded the established notions of

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

through the creation functional, imperfect, and warm

product design Product design is the process of creating new Product (business), products for businesses to sell to their customers. It involves the generation and development of ideas through a systematic process that leads to the creation of innovative products ...

. He connected art and society to design through organic form, for production by

B&B Italia B&B Italia SpA is an Italian modern furniture company founded in 1966 by Piero Ambrogio Busnelli, who had previously co-founded C&B Italia (with Cesare Cassina). His descendants own and manage the company. In 2021 Piero Lissoni was named Artis ...

(formerly C & B Italia), Vitra, Cassina, and fabric design, such as ''People'' (1987), composed of 570 different figures, all of which incorporate ideas about variation and diversity in contemporary society. Pesce's iconic

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

armchair - a fulsome bulbous form and attached ball-shaped ottoman – alternately referred to as La Mamma, Big Mama, Donna, and Up chair – continues to inspire interpretation nearly 50 years after its creation. According to curator and author of SuperDesign,

Maria Cristina Didero Maria Cristina Didero is an Italian curator, historian, author, and design scholar. She is curatorial director for Design Miami. Didero is quoted as saying that, "design is all about people, not about chairs." Architectural Digest called her, "Mi ...

, "Pesce wanted to produce something about the condition of women in the world. The chair can be read as the mother, and the stool her child. But it could also be a ball and chain uggestingwoman and the prison she was obliged to live in." Pesce is perhaps best known for his work with

resin A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...

, moulds, and casting techniques used to create objects, including vases, chairs, lamps and the two-dimensional reliefs that the designer called “industrial skins.” From 1987 onwards, he infused ordinary materials with experimental additives, such as liquid plant resin, and worked with foam and urethane, simplify the manufacturing processes and adapt limited industrial capabilities. Pesce credited the early influence of his student work with three venerable

Murano glass Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a Soda–lime glass, soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techn ...

makers — Moretti, Vistosi, and

Venini Venini were a British artrock band, featuring members of Pulp and Ladytron, who were active between the years 1998 and 2001. History Guitarist and violinist Russell Senior left Pulp in 1997 and began writing and demoing songs with vocalist/ly ...

— whose casting techniques for informing his label-defying works of sculpture, furniture, vessels, and paintings. Even Pesce's own experimentation in glassmaking led to inventive techniques and highly original results. Pesce even used urethane resin to create necklaces, bracelets, brooches, and rings. For Pesce, the design and development of portable goods always incorporated craft-specialization, history, humour, and the human need for connection. Pesce's

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

techniques such as ''diversified series production'' is a process by which he experimented with materials using a craft manufacturing sensibility applied to mass production methodology. On the production line, for example, factory workers vary proportions to produce a series of objects with an "imperfect and warm" quality. Socio-political messaging is found in Pesce's collections, such as "Nobody’s Perfect" (2002) by Zerodisegno, and the 2010 series of irregularly shaped tables for Cassina, which together form the recognizable shape of a boot shape, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, and celebrate human diversity and connection, as well as one-of-a-kind pieces like “America Table” (2012), with a red-white-and-blue resin tabletop

American flag The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton ( ...

supported on letters that spell “independence,” and “Verbal Abuse” (1994), a tall, grided lamp that bends forward with attachable weights. Pesce's unconventional

mixed-media In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art inc ...

industrial design and organic forms collected in major museums across the world ascribe the work to the realm of art. A 2014 retrospective exhibition ''The Time of Diversity'' at the

MAXXI MAXXI (, 'national museum of 21st-century arts') is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The buildi ...

, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, charted the artfulness of Pesce's product design from the 1960s to the present. Recent exhibitions such as “What it is to be Human,” at The Peninsula Chicago,

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

in Hong Kong, and an artist-in-resident program at Peninsula Beijing, all featuring works by Pesce that expand the renown artist and architect's history of public commitment to the arts. In 2016, Pesce unveiled a site-specific sculpture "Majesty Betrayed" on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. The monumental female figure wrapped in a long cloak by Pesce was inspired by the Christian

Maestà Maestà , the Italian word for "majesty", designates a classification of images of the enthroned Madonna with the child Jesus, the designation generally implying accompaniment by angels, saints, or both. The ''Maestà'' is an extension of the " ...

iconography of the ''Madonna on the Throne'' – the highly venerated Madonna Rucellai by

Duccio di Boninsegna Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ), commonly known as just Duccio, was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religi ...

(1285), in

Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The ch ...

and later moved in the twentieth century to the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...

. Pesce's sculpture entitled "Porta Ritratti" (2018) for the Milan Fuorisalone was exhibited at the entrance of the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

of Fine Arts, and later, the 13th edition of Design Miami / Basel. The ambitious installation – a chair measuring over 13 feet (4 meters) high representing 20 human faces – according to Pesce, " is a Trojan horse that penetrates the Rocca dell'Arte making victims among the old mentality." The work is another compelling tribute to cultural diversity within society.

Gallery and museum exhibitions

Pesce's architecture and design have been published, exhibited, and collected internationally and included in the permanent collections of museums around the world.

Solo exhibitions

* 1975: ''Gaetano Pesce, Le futur est peut-être passé'' ("Gaetano Pesce, The future is perhaps past"): Centre de Création Industrielle, Établissement Public du Centre Beaubourg, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris * 1983: ''Gaetano Pesce : a

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I (M.Arch I), Master of Architecture II (M.Arch II), Master of Environmental Desi ...

Exhibition.'' * 1986: ''Gaetano Pesce 1975–1985''.

Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) is an art museum in Strasbourg, France, which was founded in 1973 and opened in its own building in November 1998. One of the largest of its k ...

, France. * 1988: ''Gaetano Pesce: Drawings, Models, Prototypes.'' Max Protetch Gallery, New York * 1988: ''Modern Times Again.''

Steelcase Steelcase Inc. is an international manufacturer of furniture, casegoods, seating, and storage and partitioning systems for offices, hospitals, classrooms, and residential interiors. It is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. ...

Design Partnership, New York, New York * 1989: ''Gaetano Pesce: Steelcase design partnership.'' Max Protetch Gallery, New York * 1989: ''Gaetano Pesce : produire industriellement la différence.'' UQAM, Centre de design, Montréal, Canada * 1991: ''Gaetano Pesce. Collaborative Exhibition.''

Tel Aviv Museum of Art The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world. History The Tel Aviv ...

, Israel; Peter Joseph Gallery, New York * 1996: ''Gaetano Pesce Le temps des questions, retrospective.'' Forum of the

, Paris, France. * 1997: ''Gaetano Pesce,'' Material Connection, New York, N.Y. * 1997: ''Currents 69: GAETANO PESCE.'' Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO. * 1997: ''Gaetano Pesce.'' The Gallery Mourmans, Zoute * 1998: ''The presence of objets—Gaetano Pesce.'' Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts * 1999: ''Gaetano Pesce: The Presence of the Objects.'' Columbia

GSAPP The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is the architecture school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. It is also home to the Masters of Science program in Advanced Architectu ...

Temple Hoyne Buell Temple Hoyne Buell (September 9, 1895 – January 5, 1990) was an American architect, real estate developer and entrepreneur namesake of the Buell Theatre in Denver Center Complex, Buell & Company, and the Temple Buell Foundation. Buell was b ...

Center for the Study of American Architecture. * 2002: Musée des Arts Décoratifs,

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, Paris, France. * 2005: ''Gaetano Pesce: Pushing the Limits.''

, Philadelphia, PA. * 2005: ''Gaetano Pesce: Il rumore del tempo.''

Triennale di Milano The Triennale di Milano is a museum of art and design in the Parco Sempione in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the , built between 1931 and 1933 to designs by Giovanni Muzio and financed by Antonio Bernocchi and his ...

, Milan, Italy. * 2005: ''H2O. Gaetano Pesce.''

Institut Valencià d'Art Modern The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (; ; English: "Valencian Institute of Modern Art"), also known by the acronym IVAM, was the first center of modern art in Spain, opening in 1989 in the city of Valencia. The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern is a ...

(IVAM) * 2007: ''Pink Pavilion di Gaetano Pesce,''

, Italy * 2010: ''Gaetano Pesce: Pieces from a Larger Puzzle.'' Italian Cultural Institute of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California. * 2011: ''L’Italia in Croce di Gaetano Pesce.''

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Italian Pavilion, Italian Cultural Institute of New York. * 2013: ''Gaetano Pesce: L'Abbraccio.'' Fred Torres Collaborations, New York * 2013: ''Gaetano Pesce Retrospective.'' Collective.1 Design Fair, Pier 57, New York, N.Y. * 2014: ''Gaetano Pesce: Il tempo della diversità.'' una retrospettiva,

, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome. * 2014:''Transforming Reality: Italian Design Innovation and Fantasy.'' Eagle Gallery,

Cafesjian Museum of Art The Cafesjian Center for the Arts (CCA, Armenian language, Armenian: (Gafesčyan arvesti kentron), also known as the Cafesjian Museum Foundation) is an art museum in Yerevan, Armenia. It is located at the central Kentron District, in and around th ...

, Armenia * 2014: ''Gaetano Pesce: Retrospective.'' Sotheby's Gallery Charpentier, Paris, France. * 2015: ''Frammenti e figure architettoniche ai quattro angoli del mondo.'' Galleria Antonia Jannone, Milano, Italy. * 2015: ''Gaetano Pesce: ‘One of a Kind Iconic Works, 1967–2015.'' Allouche Gallery, New York * 2015: ''Gaetano Pesce: For Her.'' Reinstein Ross Gallery, 30 Gansevoort Street, NYC * 2015: ''Performance nell’installazione : La Cucina Luogo di Passione.''

Design Museum, Milan, Italy. * 2015: ''Gaetano Pesce: Frammenti e figure architettoniche ai quattro angoli del mondo.'' Galleria Antonia Jannone, Milan, Italy * 2016: ''Fish Design'', Maison & Objet, Paris * 2016: ''Gaetano Pesce: Molds (Gelati Misti)'' MOCA Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles * 2016: ''Gaetano Pesce 'Gli Armadi Parlanti' ('The Speaking Cabinets')'' Salon 94,

Design Miami Design Miami/ is an American design company that holds two annual flagship collectible design fairs in Miami, Florida and Basel, Switzerland. Design Miami/ also holds fairs in Paris and Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chines ...

* 2017: ''Gaetano Pesce : architettura e fugurazione.'' Complesso Museale di Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy *2019: ''Gaetano Pesce: Workingallery'', Salon 94 Design, New York *2019: ''Gaetano Pesce: Age of Contaminations''. Friedman Benda, New York *2021: ''Nobody's Perfect: Pesce's First Solo'', Sea World Arts and Culture Center, Shenzhen, China *2023: ''Dear Future'', Goldwyn House, Los Angeles

Group exhibitions and programs

* 1972: ''The New Domestic Landscape: Achievements and Problems of Italian Design.''

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

, 26 May to 11 September 1972. :::''Architecture on Film: Italy – The New Domestic Landscape,

, 1972 + Q&A with Gaetano Pesce and Peter Lang.'' * 1975: ''The Future Is Perhaps Past.''

, France. * 1979: ''Transformations in Modern Architecture.''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. * 1981: ''Furniture by architects : contemporary chairs, tables and lamps.'' Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. * 1986: ''L'eau en formes (Water forms): Vittel Design 86.'' Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. * 1991: ''Masterworks.'' Peter Joseph Gallery, New York. * 1995: ''Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design.''

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York, N.Y. * 1997: ''Designed for Delight: Alternative aspects of twentieth-century decorative arts,'' travel exhibition. :::

Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History () is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of Canada, as well as support related res ...

;

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...

, OH;

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street west. The MMFA ...

, Canada; ::: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France. * 1998: ''International New Glass 1998: Venezia aperto vetro.''

Fortuny Museum The Museo Fortuny or Fortuny Museum is an art museum in San Marco, in central Venice, Italy. The museum is housed in the Palazzo Pesaro Orfei, now often known as Palazzo Fortuny, where Mariano Fortuny (1871–1949) had a studio in the late ni ...

Doge's Palace The Doge's Palace (''Doge'' pronounced ; ; ) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic architecture, Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace included government offices, a jail, and th ...

, :::and Istituto Statale d'Arte di Venezia, Italy. * 2002: ''Mod to Memphis : design in colour 1960s–80s''. Powerhouse Pub, Sydney * 2003: ''Inside Design Now.'' Triennial of the

National Design Museum,

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

. * 2003: ''US Design: 1975–2000,'' travel exhibition.

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

;

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an art museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Brooks Museum, which was founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

Bass Museum of Art The Bass Museum of Art is a contemporary art museum located in Miami Beach, Florida. The Bass Museum of Art was founded in 1963 and opened in 1964. History Early years John Bass (1891–1978) and Johanna Redlich (m. February 21, 1921) were Je ...

, Miami; :::Museum of Art & Design, (formerly

American Craft Museum The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...

), New York, N.Y. *2008: ''Formless Furniture.''

Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts (German: ''Museum für angewandte Kunst'') is an arts and crafts museum located at Stubenring 5 in Vienna's 1st district Innere Stadt. Besides its traditional orientation towards arts and crafts and design, the ...

* 2008: ''Dreamland: Architectural Experiments Since the 1970s.''

, New York, N.Y. * 2012: ''Design Miami.'' * 2013: ''Pop Art Design.''

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

, Stockholm, Sweden. * 2016: ''Tempting Art: Edible gems''. Whitechapel Gallery, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg * 2015: ''New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America,''

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...

* 2015: ''Kitchens & Invaders.'' VIII

Design Museum, Viale Emilio Alemagna. Milan, Italy. *2019: ''Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today''. Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany. *2019: '' Performa 19''. New York. *2021: “No more silent object”. Salon94 Gallery, New York.

Academic experience

For 28 years, Pesce taught architectural design at the

Institut National des Sciences Appliquées The Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (, INSA; "National Institute for Applied Sciences") is a French engineering university. There are seven INSA establishments organised as a network and located in major French regional cities Lyon, ...

(INSA) (National Institute of Applied Sciences),

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, France;

Domus Academy Domus Academy is a private school of design in Milan, Italy. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in fashion, industrial design, design management, business and user experience design, product and interior design, design i ...

Milan, Italy Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

;

City University of Hong Kong The City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is a public research university in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and formally established as the City University of Hong Kong in 1994 ...

, China; Escola da Cidade, (AEAUSP), (Architectural School of São Paulo), Brazil;

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name **Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie * ...

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;

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; and in

, from 1980 on, at the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

Death

Gaetano Pesce died on 3 April 2024, at the age of 84.

Professional recognition

* 1975: ''Special Prize: Genesi?'' Fourth International Lighting Design Competition * 1993: ''

Chrysler Design Award The Chrysler Design Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals in innovative works of architecture and design which significantly influenced modern American culture. Chrysler's awards started in 1993 to recognize six designers based in the Uni ...

for Innovation and Design.'' * 1995: ''

Interior Design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...

Magazine Award for ''Umbrella'' chair.'' * 2004: ''Good Design Award.'' The

Chicago Athenaeum The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architecture ...

Museum of Architecture And Design * 2005: ''Collab's Design Excellence Award.''

* 2006: ''Designer of the Year.'' A&W Architektur und Wohnens, Cologne,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

* 2009: '' Lawrence J. Israel Prize.'' Interior Design Department of the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

, New York, N.Y. * 2010: IIC ''Lifetime Achievement Award.'' Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles

Literature

*
Gaetano Pesce: A Yale School of Architecture Exhibition, October 31-December 2, 1983
', New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 1983. () * ''Gaetano Pesce: Multi-Disciplinary Work'', Tel Aviv; New York: Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Peter Joseph Gallery, 1991. () * ''Gaetano Pesce: Cinq Techniques Pour La Verre'', Marseille: Musee de Marseille, 1992. () * ''Gaetano Pesce: Le Temps des Questions'', Paris: Centre G. Pompidou, 1996. () * Marisa Bartolucci, ed. Marisa Bartolucci and Raul Cabra
''Gaetano Pesce: Compact Design Portfolio''
San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2003. ()
''Il Rumore del Tempo: Gaetano Pesce''
Milan: Carta; Triennale di Milano, 2004–2005. () * Gaetano Pesce, ed. Maria Luisa Caffarelli, ''Gaetano Pesce "Nobody's perfect": plastica e design'', Alessandria, Italy: Citta di Alessandria, 2005. () * Gaetano Pesce and Silvana Annicchiarico, ''Gaetano Pesce: Pink Pavillion'', Milan: Electa; Triennale di Milan, 2008. () * ''Gaetano Pesce: Pieces from a Larger Puzzle'', 2010
''Gaetano Pesce: Six Tables on Water''
David Gill Gallery, 2012. * Domitilla Dardi, ed. Gianni Mercurio and Domitilla Dardi
''Gaetano Pesce: Il Tempo Della Diversità: catalogo della mostra''
Milan: Electa, 2014. () * Carlo Martino
''Gaetano Pesce: Materia e differnza''
Marsilio, 2007. () * Ed. Laura Bannister
''Out in the world with Gaetano Pesce''
New York, 2021. ()

References

External links

*
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

with

for Domus magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Pesce, Gaetano 1939 births 2024 deaths People from La Spezia 20th-century Italian architects Modernist architects from Italy Architecture educators 20th-century American architects Modernist designers Italian furniture designers Italian industrial designers Compasso d'Oro Award recipients