Philippe Starck’s citrus juicer and Michael Graves' teapot, amongst other designer housewares, will now be permanently on show at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) in Indiana, thanks to Alessi's donation of 29 objects from the company’s catalog to the museum's design galleries.
The lot, which includes designs from a number of different periods throughout the stylish Italian housewares company’s 90-year history, will join the more than 50,000 works already housed in the museum’s permanent collection.
They kitchen classics include: Riccardo Dalisi’s ‘90018’ Neapolitan coffee maker, Alessandro Mendini’s Anna G. corkscrew, Richard Sapper’s‘9090’ espresso coffee maker and ‘9091’ kettle, Michael Graves’ Coffee and Tea Piazza Service and Philippe Starck’s ‘Juicy Salif’ citrus juicer, as well as newer items in the Alessi collection such as the Campana Brothers’ ‘Peneira’ baskets, Alessandro Mendini’s ‘Moka Alessi’, Marc Newson’s Gemini salt and pepper mills, and Andrea Branzi’s ‘Mama-ó’ kettle.
Over the last six years, the IMA’s Department of Design Arts has acquired many designs by the company that, founded in 1921 by Giovanni Alessi, has managed to make virtually everything from a whistling teakettle to a fly swatter a design collectible.
IMA’s new contemporary design galleries will open on November 22 after a three-year renovation project. Focusing on design after 1980, a period of immense growth and creativity, the galleries will be based on the two overarching concepts: design as industry, and design as art.
