STYLE AND CIVILIZATION IN THE WORKS OF GIO PONTI
Architect, designer, writer and painter, Gio Ponti has been one of the most prominent genius of the 20th Century and his name has rightly become one of the most sought after among Italian artists on the international market. Man tied to the classical world but always with an eye on the future, Gio Ponti was the first true promoter of the debate on the relationship between art and industry.
Through the intense activity as journalist in the magazines he created and directed, he contributed to the establishment of a culture of Home and a concept of design as a qualifying moment for serial production. A program which informed and inspired his multifaceted activities as a designer, an intellectual and a university professor.
The November auction of Arts of the 20th Century will feature a small but significant section of drawings, objects and works that illustrate the great architect’s production throughout his career.
Between 1934 and 1937 Ponti realized two buildings for the University of Padua, also designing a large and evocative cycle of frescoes, an absolutely exceptional decorative program for extension and quality, where he could express his idea of a total art work, and we are delighted to offer some beautiful china and pencil drawing designs from this series of frescoes. In addition, we will have other previously unreleased original drawings such as a few colored pencil sketches depicting lamps produced in the 1960s, illustrations of costumes and stage sets and a pair of etchings depicting the celebrated Gonfalone d’Onore for the main city hospital in Milan, to the production of which the jeweler Alfredo Ravasco also collaborated.
However, objects designed by Gio Ponti have the greatest importance in the forthcoming catalog, with a wood and glass occasional table exhibited at the Triennale Museum in Milan, and two prototypes of his famous metal horses
designed for Lino Sabattini, both signed by Ponti. Emblematic tribute to his 1957 book Architecture is a Crystal, the catalog also offers a plexiglas model of an architectural structure.
But the most significant examples of design as a mixture of classic forms and modern vision are represented by a cup produced for San Cristoforo with gilt décor, and the very rare Mom Bottle produced by Domenico Minganti for
Cooperativa Ceramica in Imola with its warm red and yellow tones that make it perhaps the most iconic item in this section dedicated to the great master.
by CRISTIANO COLLARI
Through the intense activity as journalist in the magazines he created and directed, he contributed to the establishment of a culture of Home and a concept of design as a qualifying moment for serial production. A program which informed and inspired his multifaceted activities as a designer, an intellectual and a university professor.
The November auction of Arts of the 20th Century will feature a small but significant section of drawings, objects and works that illustrate the great architect’s production throughout his career.
Between 1934 and 1937 Ponti realized two buildings for the University of Padua, also designing a large and evocative cycle of frescoes, an absolutely exceptional decorative program for extension and quality, where he could express his idea of a total art work, and we are delighted to offer some beautiful china and pencil drawing designs from this series of frescoes. In addition, we will have other previously unreleased original drawings such as a few colored pencil sketches depicting lamps produced in the 1960s, illustrations of costumes and stage sets and a pair of etchings depicting the celebrated Gonfalone d’Onore for the main city hospital in Milan, to the production of which the jeweler Alfredo Ravasco also collaborated.
However, objects designed by Gio Ponti have the greatest importance in the forthcoming catalog, with a wood and glass occasional table exhibited at the Triennale Museum in Milan, and two prototypes of his famous metal horses
designed for Lino Sabattini, both signed by Ponti. Emblematic tribute to his 1957 book Architecture is a Crystal, the catalog also offers a plexiglas model of an architectural structure.
But the most significant examples of design as a mixture of classic forms and modern vision are represented by a cup produced for San Cristoforo with gilt décor, and the very rare Mom Bottle produced by Domenico Minganti for
Cooperativa Ceramica in Imola with its warm red and yellow tones that make it perhaps the most iconic item in this section dedicated to the great master.
by CRISTIANO COLLARI