Carlo Mollino 
 
Kunsthalle Wein: 2011. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. Ever so slight bumping to bear the spine on the bottom of the boards. 212 pages. Near fine. 
 
Each of Mollino’s passions could be what he’s most well-known for: the singular pieces of furniture and the ‘stream-lined surrealism’ architecture of the Teatro Regio; the life of danger in downhill skiing, race car driving, and stunt flying; the writing forays into appreciations of other architects, analyses of classical myth, and fiction. Each of these reflected the others, as in the double torpedo racing car modelled after a woman’s torso. And this first-ever publication exhumes another passion reflecting all the rest: erotic photography, culminating in thousands of polaroids, hidden in Mollino's crypt-like and opulent Turin homes, with wigs, exquisite drapery and exotic furniture. Look at and read up on the carefully staged polaroids of prostitutes, girlfriends, and women who seemed to be neither. 
 
“He had lived several different lives in order to be able to meet all the requirements of his diverse ambitions, interests, fancies and obsessions.”