ROME (AFP) - Designer and architect Ettore Sottsass, the figurehead of 20th-century Italian design and founder of the influential Memphis Group, died on Monday aged 90, the ANSA news agency reported.
Sottsass died at his home in northern Milan of heart failure after suffering from flu.
"(Sottsasss) talent endured throughout a century. (As a designer), he never ceased to amaze us right up until the last days of his life," the Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said in a statement paying tribute to the legendary architect.
A retrospective of the designers work was opened in northeastern Trieste in early December marking his 90th birthday on September 14.
The exhibition, titled "I Want to Know Why," includes 130 of Sottsasss creations and runs until March 2.
"I would like the visitors to leave crying -- that is, with emotion," he said at the time of the opening.
Sottsass, who was born in Innsbruck, Austria, studied architecture in northern Turin, opening his first studio in Milan in 1947.
A consultant for Olivetti from 1958 to 1980, Sottsass created the iconic portable red Valentine typewriter in 1969.
Right up until his death, Sottsass continued to produce work at his Milan studio, notably designing private homes.
