Carlo Mollino: Maniera Moderna

Photographer, designer, architect and author on topics ranging from winter sports to the history of photography, Carlo Mollino (1905–1973) accomplished himself in a dizzying array of fields. The diversity and scale of his output often makes it seem somewhat daunting, but this volume coheres Mollino’s prolificness into an appetizing and eminently approachable whole, by examining it across five inventively themed chapters: “Choreography,” “Montage,” “Publications,” “Display” and “Appropriations.” “Choreography” looks at Mollino’s love of motion in his customizations of airplanes and racing cars and his designs for the Lutrario dance hall in Turin. The “Montage” chapter examines Mollino’s architectural photomontages and other uses of photography; “Publications” reproduces a wealth of Mollino first editions, magazine spreads and works on paper; “Display” reveals the influence of Surrealism on Mollino’s interior displays, and also includes his erotic Polaroids; and “Appropriation” looks at his photographs of interior décor.