Nathalie Du Pasquier started drawing as soon as she met her husband George Sowden in 1979 in Milan. She was introduced to the world of design and shortly after, in 1981, became a founding member of the iconic postmodern design movement Memphis. From 1981 to 1987 she didn’t stop drawing. Every day she would draw a whole new modern world, from very small items like jewelry to entire cities. This world only existed in her head but would eventually be developed into real pieces for the Memphis exhibitions.
This unique book is the first and definitive compilation of all the unpublished drawings from those years, which had been sitting in the drawers of Nathalie’s studio for over 30 years. Organized by the smallest objects to the biggest and divided into chapters, each with a text by Nathalie, it has been carefully edited and designed by Apartamento magazine’s co-founder Omar Sosa together with Nathalie Du Pasquier.
Don’t Take These Drawings Seriously is an excellent reference for future generations and a welcome document of an important period in modern design.
For this lecture, Nathalie Du Pasquier will present the book as a starting point for a presentation of the work in a wider sense. The work in the book, as the title suggests, is about the 80’s. In 1987 as the Memphis group was dissolving Du Pasquier decided to start painting and stopped working as a designer. Over almost 30 years her work has evolved but kept itself focused around objects and space. She paints, she draws and she builds wooden constructions. Apart from some images of patterns which are the things she has been known for, Du Pasquier would like to show what she has been doing since 1987.
Nathalie Du Pasquier was born in Bordeaux (France) in 1957 and has lived in Milan since 1979. She worked as a designer until 1986 and was a founding member of The design group Memphis. During that time she designed numerous “decorated surfaces”: textiles, carpets and some furniture and objects. In 1987 painting became her main activity.
Omar Sosais an art director, publisher and graphic designer. In 2008 together with his business partnerS Nacho Alegre and Marco Velardi, Omar founded the magazine Apartamento. Two years later he went on to win the prestigious Yellow Pencil Award and Apartamento was awarded the best complete magazine of 2010 by the Designers and Art Directors Association (UK). Since 2010 Omar lives between Barcelona and Milan working for his own clients and focusing on the art direction of the Corriere de la Sera design magazine, Casamica.