The reinvention of craftsmanship

Craftsmanship is an important and unmistakable aspect of the artistic culture of contemporary Sardinia. This is due, in addition to the richness of popular craftsmanship (which a difficult critic like Ugo Ojetti defined in the 1920s as “aristocracy among the landscape arts”), to the intelligent design operation carried out on it between the fifties and the early sixties of the last century by artists such as Eugenio Tavolara and Ubaldo Badas.

Through ISOLA (Sardinian Institute of Artisan Work Organization), of which he was director, Tavolara was able to revitalize the forms of tradition (especially in the textile, weaving and wood carving sectors), putting them in contact with international taste trends, at that time aimed at rediscovering the values of a simple and sophisticated Mediterranean; an operation that, supported by the tourist boom of the Costa Smeralda, and the related rise of villas and hotels with their furnishing needs, had immediate success in Europe and the USA and was warmly supported in Italy by Gio Ponti in the magazine “Domus”.

A key episode of the artisan revival of Sardinia was the construction in Sassari in 1956 of the pavilion intended to host the ISOLA exhibitions. Designed by Ubaldo Badas, the pavilion was among the best architectures in Sardinia in the 1950s, a tangible expression of the unity between art, craftsmanship and architecture: it is in fact adorned with ceramic decorations by Gavino Tilocca, Emilia Palomba, Giuseppe Silecchia, and houses a steatite relief and a wooden bench designed by Tavolara.

When the latter died in 1963, ISOLA took a new course, aimed more at commercialization than at the aesthetic renewal of products. However, Tavolara's legacy has not been completely dispersed, but it survives in the work of many Sardinian artisans and designers, like him engaged in the effort to make modernity and tradition coexist.

MONOGRAPHS
G. Altea, Eugenio Tavolara. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2005 (The Masters of Sardinian Art; 12)

Update

26/9/2023 - 01:01