From late 2018 to late 2019, design curator and author Glenn Adamson sat down with the renowned artist Gaetano Pesce for a series of interviews. It was a daunting task: the 83-year-old Pesce is known as a private figure whose public statements are few and far between, even if the public would love to hear them. Pesce, whose works included the iconic “Up” chair for B&B Italia, the Organic Building in Osaka, as well as resin runway seating for Bottega Veneta, has left a tremendous mark on culture while defying any nostalgic association with a specific artistic movement.
Instead, he constantly embraces new materials, shapes, and inspirations—a design chameleon who is always pushing forward. “Over the past fifty years and more, he has led a career of contradictions, changing his mind as it suits him, to the point of complete incoherence,” writes Adamson. “The one constant in his career is radicalism itself: the willingness to question everything and, by questioning, to find the new.”
A 1970 promotional photo for Pesce’s giant Moloch lamp.© Gaetano Pesce, courtesy of the Gaetano Pesce Office.\
Today, Adamson and Pesce’s wide-ranging conversations are published in Gaetano Pesce: The Complete Incoherence. A lavishly-illustrated book featuring over 250 images, their Q&As are organized chronologically into 20 distinct chapters: the first begins with a discussion about Pesce’s childhood in Italy, whereas the second tackles his relationship with lover, muse, and mentor Milena Vettore. (Interspersed are both archival pictures of Pesce as well as his works.)
In chapter six, Adamson takes a deep dive into his “Up” Series, arguably his most famous body of work. (The Up 5 Lounge Chair with Up 6 Ottoman, which resembles a figure of a woman with a ball and chain, sits on the fourth floor of The Museum of Modern Art.) While Pesce has spoken previously about its feminist symbolism, The Complete Incoherence reveals a deeply personal backstory too: “I had a chance in my life to meet a lot of intelligent women, and I was lucky to understand a certain way to think, that it was not my way. Because, me, too, I was stupid and archaic, thinking very rigid and male,” Pesce says. “I see certain men, they remind me of myself when I was 18 or 19, or maybe 21, then I started to change because of Milena. There is still an incredible problem today because all the men think they are right and it is very difficult to make them think the opposite.”
Chapter 19 offers a similarly unprecedented insight into the Organic Building, whereas Chapter 15 examines his Pratt Chair and resin work. Yet Pesce often drifts into thoughts about life and society as a whole: dotted throughout the pages are (often strong) opinions on Brexit, democracy, the Beatles, and even love itself.
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