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Object Timeline
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Carlton Room Divider Room Divider
This is a room divider. It was designed by Ettore Sottsass and manufactured by Memphis and distributed by Grace Designs. It is dated 1981 and we acquired it in 1986. Its medium is wood, plastic laminate, metal. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
The Carlton room divider and cabinet was one of the first pieces Ettore Sottsass created for the international experimental design group he co-founded, Memphis, in 1981. It illustrates the decade’s postmodern movement, which strove to upend the dogmas of modernism. Where modernism was functional, postmodernism was not—Carlton is practically useless as a cabinet, blurring boundaries between “design” and “art.” Memphis embraced diversity, irony, and wit rather than universal, rational answers.
It is credited Museum purchase from General Acquisition Endowment.
- Bowl (Germany)
- kiln-formed fused glass.
- This acquisition made possible through Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
- 1983-11-1
- Curved Staircase Model In The French Style
- carved, planed, turned, and veneered walnut.
- Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw.
- 2014-11-2
- Sherry Netherlands Glass
- glass.
- Gift of Barovier & Toso.
- 1986-25-2
Our curators have highlighted 10 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Drawing, Croquis for a scarf
- brush and gouache on paper.
- 1986-10-1
- Nefertiti Teapot Teapot
- earthenware.
- Gift of George R. Kravis II.
- 2018-22-62-a.b
- Horseman Bench, from Kassena Town series
- hand-painted white beech, mild steel interior hinges and fasteners.
- Courtesy of Dokter and Misses.
- 39.2015.1
Its dimensions are
H x W x D: 196 × 186.5 × 32.5 cm (6 ft. 5 3/16 in. × 6 ft. 1 7/16 in. × 12 13/16 in.)
Cite this object as
Carlton Room Divider Room Divider; Designed by Ettore Sottsass (Italian, 1917–2007); Manufactured by Memphis (Italy); Distributed by Grace Designs; Italy; wood, plastic laminate, metal; H x W x D: 196 × 186.5 × 32.5 cm (6 ft. 5 3/16 in. × 6 ft. 1 7/16 in. × 12 13/16 in.); Museum purchase from General Acquisition Endowment; 1986-4-1
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Cooper-Hewitt Collections: A Design Resource.
