Italian designer, artist and inventor Bruno Munari liked to contemplate on matters concerning aesthetics, often focusing on objects that were part of the everyday, like cars, advertisements and kitchen utensils. In the collection of essays, Design as Art, some of his most noteworthy thoughts are gathered.

Already in the preface to the English edition, Munari takes the reader on a breath-taking journey through the modern history of art: in just three pages, he outlines how art underwent the transformation from figurative to conceptual:

His story begins when Georges Seurat, who invented pointillism, discarded the “literary element” of art, in favour of pure visuality. Art was now about techniques, not about telling stories.

Next came Vassily Kandinsky, pioneer of abstract art, who continued to work on the disappearance of the narrative by creating art that no longer imitated nature.

After this, Piet Mondrian developed colours and forms that only referred to themselves, and didn’t even attempt to connect to something that exists in reality.

This set the stage for Yves Klein’s large, monochromatic works, that are all one colour and nothing else, which meant that there was little left for artists like Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri to do but to slash, punctuate or burn the canvas. And just like that, in a few sentences, Munari has explained half a century of art history and why contemporary art looks the way it does. 

The rest of the book offers a variety of similar insights into the worlds of art and design, all condensed and viewed through the critical eye of Munari. Speaking of how to assess the aesthetic value of something, Munari dryly summarizes: “A thing is not beautiful because it is beautiful, as the he-frog said to the she-frog, it is beautiful because one likes it.”

The reader understands Munari’s view of the subjectiveness of artistic expressions: Art simply exists, and whether or not it is considered beautiful, is up to the audience. Later on, however, in another essay, he nuances this statement:

“Ugly things are ugly in much the same way the world over. Only the best can teach us, and the best of anything is individual. Each country excels in some things, and in the rest it is just the same as other countries – mediocre.”

Reading his essays is learning to see the world in a different light, or at least from a new angle. Regardless of whether the subject is graphic design, how to design chairs or the many uses of bamboo in Japanese architecture, Munari’s sharp intellect unpacks the subject and allows the reader to follow his analysis.

The book is a crash-course in modern aesthetic theory, and a valuable insight into the thoughts of one of the world’s most fascinating philosophers on style. 

Further reading:

Bruno Munari

Design as Art

London: Penguin, 2008.