Annibale Oste: the creative impulse

As part of "The AD Style" sale , celebrating the partnership between the famous magazine and PIASA auction house on Wednesday 17 June 2020, the design department presents a selection of pieces by some of the most emblematic designers of the second half of the 20th century, including the sculptor and designer Annibale Oste (1942-2010).
 
Born in Naples in 1942 in the Rione Sanità district, Annibale Oste began his training at the Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under sculptors Emilio Greco and Augusto Perez.

He quickly gains autonomy and experiments with a wide variety of materials such as plaster, wood, papier-mâché and aluminium. A pioneer, he was, for example, one of the first designers to integrate fibreglass into his pieces.

His work was the subject of a first exhibition at the Saletta di Cassino in 1967 and, two years later, at the Galleria Due Mondi in Rome on the occasion of "Perspective 4", organised by Enrico Crispolti and Giorgio Di Genova. From the beginning of the 1970s, Annibale Oste was a great success. The artist won the first prize for sculpture in 1974 at the XXVIII Biennale of Milan. In the early 1980s, he began to devote himself to design, which soon became his main activity.

The storage cabinet "Opera mobile Asimmetrico K 114" offered for sale on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 by PIASA illustrates the inventiveness of its author's approach. Halfway between design and sculpture, this piece was created in 2003. Made of wood, glass, mother-of-pearl, but also aluminium and resin, and published in only nine copies, it is estimated at between 14,000 and 18,000 euros. Contested by a subtle play of imbalance, its verticality gives it a lot of lightness.

Considered a visionary, Annibale Oste breathed dynamism and fantasy into the materials he worked with. His studio in Milan has been transformed into a museum displaying sculptures, vases and furniture, most of which were designed between 2001 and 2010.