Tomás Maldonado facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tomás Maldonado
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Maldonado in Milan in 2014
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| Born | 25 April 1922 |
| Died | 26 November 2018 (aged 96) |
| Nationality | Argentinian |
| Occupation | Painter Philosopher Industrial designer |
| Years active | 1954–2018 |
| Known for | Ulm Model |
Tomás Maldonado (born April 25, 1922 – died November 26, 2018) was a famous artist, designer, and deep thinker from Argentina. He is known for his important ideas about design, especially the "Ulm Model." This was a special way of thinking about design that he helped create while teaching at the Ulm School of Design in Germany from 1954 to 1967.
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Early Life and Art
Tomás Maldonado was born in Buenos Aires, a big city in Argentina. He studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón. This is where he learned to be a painter.
Joining the Avant-Garde
Early in his career, Maldonado was part of the Avant-garde movement in Argentina. The Avant-garde was a group of artists who liked to try new and experimental things. They wanted to break away from old art rules. He even helped start a painting group called Arte Concreto-Invención. This group focused on abstract art, using shapes and colors in new ways.
Working in Italy
Between 1964 and 1967, Maldonado worked on some interesting projects in Italy. He teamed up with his German friend Gui Bonsiepe. Together, they created special design systems for a company called Olivetti. Olivetti made typewriters and other office machines. They also worked for a department store called La Rinascente.
In 1967, he moved to Milan, Italy, to live and work. He started teaching at the University of Bologna. At this time, he focused more on philosophy and criticism. He was very interested in semiotics, which is the study of signs and symbols and how they create meaning. Maldonado believed that thinkers should help people understand important ideas. He wrote an essay called "The Heterodox", where he said that intellectuals should help people become more aware of the world around them.
Teaching and Ideas
Tomás Maldonado had a long and important career as a teacher. He shared his ideas about design and thinking with many students.
- He was a professor of Environmental Design at Politecnico di Milano University. This field is about designing spaces and environments.
- From 1954 to 1966, he taught at the Ulm School of Design in Germany. He even served as the head of the school for some time.
- Maldonado was a key person in developing the "Ulm Model." This model taught students to think about design in a very organized way. It combined science and design, and theory with practice.
- He included ideas like planning methods, how people see things (perceptual theory), and semiotics in his teaching. He wrote about this approach in his essay, "Ulm, Science and Design".
- In 1965, he gave special lectures at London's Royal College of Art.
- The next year, he became a fellow at Princeton University in the United States.
- From 1967 to 1970, he taught at Princeton's School of Architecture.
- In 1971, he joined the philosophy faculty at Bologna University. He taught there until 1984, focusing on Environmental Design.
- In 2012, he received a special award called the Konex Special Mention. This award recognized his amazing work in visual arts in Argentina.
Selected Works
Here are some of the books and essays Tomás Maldonado wrote:
- Max Bill (1955)
- Ulm, Science and Design (1964)
- La Sperenza Progettuale (1970); translated as Design, Nature, and Revolution: Toward a Critical Ecology (1972, 2019)
- Industrial Design reconsidered
- Is Architecture a Text?
- Towards an Ecological Rationalism
- Technique and Culture, the German debate between Bismarck and Weimar
- The Heterodoxo (1998)
See also
In Spanish: Tomás Maldonado para niños
