In 2018, Milan-based artist and product designer Elena Salmistraro paid tribute to four distinguished Italian predecessors—Achille Castiglioni, Riccardo Dalisi, Michele De Lucchi, and Alessandro Mendini—by rendering each as an enameled figurine in a series dubbed Most Illustrious for Venetian ceramics workshop Bosa. Now, the first-name-only boys’ club gets an equally deserving female member: Cini Boeri, on the 100th anniversary of the pioneering architect’s birth. (Having lived to 96, she almost got to celebrate in person.)
As with the men, Salmistraro has created a wittily abstracted version of Boeri that melds her physical traits with elements from some of her best-known designs. Her signature hairstyle—a blunt-cut bob with bangs—everpresent neck scarf, and dark-framed glasses are juxtaposed with a body that incorporates the ridged modularity of her 1971 Serpentone sofa and the cushioned fullness and chrome-leg angularity of her 1973 Botolo chair. Boeri’s textiles inform the jazzy pattern and vivid glazes splashed over the 12½-inch-tall statuette, while its fluid curves echo those found in her architecture. “The figurines go beyond being simple portraits,” notes Salmistraro. “They witness the profound connection between the master and his or her work, by embodying the concept we are what we make.”
Cini.
Side profile of Cini.
From left: Michele; Achille; Riccardo; Alessandro.