Willie Landels

Early years and training

Willie Landels was born in Venice in 1928, to a Scottish father and Italian mother, and spent his childhood and youth near Lake Como. He briefly attended the Art High School in Brera in 1946, then worked as a scenography apprentice at Teatro alla Scala in Milan from 1947 to 1948. In 1947 he also mounted an exhibition of surrealist collages at Milan's Biblioteca Vinciana.

London and editorial direction

Landels moved to London in 1950. The following year he was commissioned to make a mobile sculpture and wall photograph for the Industrial Power exhibition in Glasgow during the Festival of Britain. Zanotta records art-direction work at J. W. Thompson and Queen, followed by his founding of Harpers & Queen in 1970; he remained its managing director and art director until 1985.

Furniture and Throw-Away

From 1985 Landels concentrated on painting, graphic design and furniture design. Zanotta identifies Throw-Away among his works. He died in 2023.