Bruno Munari

Bruno Munari. Concave Convex – 1947

 

At the end of the 1940’s, moving past Bruno Munari’s Futurism phase, he started to create working environments. Working environments in my perspective means he is designing based on what is around him. So, he designed a composition in 1947 called, Convex-concave. This composition is composed of three dimensional metal object that is warped, open, and curved. Contour and perspective plays a big part when analyzing this piece. Munari created this piece of art starting off in a dark, cube-like room with light shining through pieces of metal that he hung from the ceiling. These pieces of metal seemed to be folded according to a mathematical principle. This piece was a milestone in his career because it showed what he learned in the past and how he transformed his aesthetics to be enhanced. It was also a very significant piece because other designers later took his idea and applied it to fashion. An important feature that Munari once again highlights in his numerous compositions is the shadows. The object originally was a 2D square that warped into a 3D curved shell pasta-like object. The role that shadow and light plays in this piece once again is substantial and done on purpose. This piece was first shown by Munari in an exhibit in Paris in 1946. After the exhibit was over the piece was returned to him all disassembled and essentially broken. This meaning the piece was misunderstood and unappreciated. However, that didn’t stop Munari from pursuing it once again. As a result, he reconstructed this composition and added different features to make it even better in his eyes. Overall, I really like this composition and I think that it was one of his best pieces!