Roberto Papini - Le Arti d'oggi. Gio Ponti. - 1930

Roberto Papini, Le Arti d'oggi. Architecture and Decorative Arts in Europe. Milan, Bestetti e Tuminelli, 1930. First edition. 34 x 25 cm, hardcover in cloth, 22 pages + 182 plates, some in color. Decorative arts, architecture, furniture accessories, glassware, artistic ceramics, textiles, silverware, artistic bookbindings, etc. Illustrations featuring works by: Gio Ponti, Le Corbusier, Marcello Piacentini, Edgar Brandt, Joseph Hoffman, Emile-Jacques Ruhlman, Eliel Saarinen, Baccarat, Cartier, Daum, Moser, and Royal Copenhagen, Duilio Cambellotti, Pietro Chiesa, Pietro Melandri, Lalique, Lenci, Ferruccio Mengaroni Pesaro, Vetri Venini, etc. The binding opens at the spine (the binding is still firm), some stains on the back cover—signs of age and a few marginal tears—a previous ownership signature.

Giovanni Ponti, known as Gio, (Milan, November 18, 1891 – Milan, September 16, 1979), was an Italian architect and designer among the most important of the post-war period.

Biography
Italians are born to build. Building is a characteristic of their race, a shape of their mind, a vocation and commitment of their destiny, an expression of their existence, the supreme and immortal sign of their history.
Gio Ponti, Architectural Vocation of Italians, 1940

Son of Enrico Ponti and Giovanna Rigone, Gio Ponti graduated in architecture from the then Royal Higher Technical Institute (the future Politecnico di Milano) in 1921, after suspending his studies during his participation in the First World War. In the same year, he married the noble Giulia Vimercati, from an ancient Brianzola family, with whom he had four children (Lisa, Giovanna, Letizia, and Giulio).

Twenty and thirty years old

Casa Marmont in Milan, 1934

The Montecatini Palace in Milan, 1938
Initially, in 1921, he opened a studio with architects Mino Fiocchi and Emilio Lancia (1926-1933), before collaborating with engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini (1933-1945). In 1923, he participated in the First Biennale of Decorative Arts held at the ISIA in Monza and was subsequently involved in organizing various Triennials, both in Monza and Milan.

In the twenties, he started his career as a designer in the ceramic industry with Richard-Ginori, reworking the company's overall industrial design strategy; with his ceramics, he won the 'Grand Prix' at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. During those years, his production was more influenced by classical themes reinterpreted in a Deco style, aligning more closely with the Novecento movement, an exponent of rationalism. Also in those same years, he began his editorial activity: in 1928, he founded the magazine Domus, which he directed until his death, except for the period from 1941 to 1948 when he was the director of Stile. Along with Casabella, Domus would represent the center of the cultural debate on Italian architecture and design in the second half of the twentieth century.


Coffee service 'Barbara' designed by Ponti for Richard Ginori in 1930.
Ponti's activities in the 1930s extended to organizing the V Milan Triennale (1933) and creating sets and costumes for La Scala Theatre. He participated in the Industrial Design Association (ADI) and was among the supporters of the Golden Compass award, promoted by La Rinascente department stores. Among other honors, he received numerous national and international awards, eventually becoming a tenured professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1936, a position he held until 1961. In 1934, the Italian Academy awarded him the Mussolini Prize for the arts.

In 1937, he commissioned Giuseppe Cesetti to create a large ceramic floor, exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, in a hall that also featured works by Gino Severini and Massimo Campigli.

The 1940s and 1950s
In 1941, during World War II, Ponti founded the regime's architecture and design magazine STILE. In the magazine, which clearly supported the Rome-Berlin axis, Ponti did not hesitate to include comments in his editorials such as 'In the post-war period, Italy will have enormous tasks... in the relations with its exemplary ally, Germany,' and 'our great allies [Nazi Germany] give us an example of tenacious, serious, organized, and orderly application' (from Stile, August 1941, p. 3). Stile lasted only a few years and closed after the Anglo-American invasion of Italy and the defeat of the Italo-German Axis. In 1948, Ponti reopened the magazine Domus, where he remained as editor until his death.

In 1951, he joined the studio along with Fornaroli, architect Alberto Rosselli. In 1952, he established the Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli studio with architect Alberto Rosselli. This marked the beginning of the most intense and fruitful period of activity in both architecture and design, abandoning frequent links to the neoclassical past and focusing on more innovative ideas.

the sixties and seventies
Between 1966 and 1968, he collaborated with the ceramic manufacturing company Ceramica Franco Pozzi of Gallarate [without a source].

The Communication Studies and Archive Center of Parma houses a collection dedicated to Gio Ponti, consisting of 16,512 sketches and drawings, 73 models and maquettes. The Ponti archive was donated by the architect's heirs (donors Anna Giovanna Ponti, Letizia Ponti, Salvatore Licitra, Matteo Licitra, Giulio Ponti) in 1982. This collection, whose design material documents the works created by the Milanese designer from the twenties to the seventies, is public and accessible.

Gio Ponti died in Milan in 1979: he is buried at the Milan Monumental Cemetery. His name has earned him a place in the cemetery's memorial register.

Stile
Gio Ponti designed many objects across a wide range of fields, from theatrical sets, lamps, chairs, and kitchen objects to interiors of transatlantic ships. Initially, in the art of ceramics, his designs reflected the Viennese Secession and argued that traditional decoration and modern art were not incompatible. His approach of reconnecting with and utilizing the values of the past found supporters in the fascist regime, which was inclined to safeguard the 'Italian identity' and recover the ideals of 'Romanity,' which was later fully expressed in architecture through the simplified neoclassicism of Piacentini.


La Pavoni coffee machine, designed by Ponti in 1948.
In 1950, Ponti began working on the design of 'fitted walls', or entire prefabricated walls that allowed for the fulfillment of various needs by integrating appliances and equipment that had previously been autonomous into a single system. We also remember Ponti for the design of the 'Superleggera' seat in 1955 (produced by Cassina), created by modifying an existing object typically handcrafted: the Chiavari chair, improved in materials and performance.

Despite this, Ponti built the School of Mathematics in the University City of Rome in 1934 (one of the first works of Italian Rationalism), and in 1936, the first of the office buildings for Montecatini in Milan. The latter, with strongly personal characteristics, reflects in its architectural details, of refined elegance, the designer's penchant for style.

In the 1950s, Ponti's style became more innovative, and while remaining classical in the second office building for Montecatini (1951), it was fully expressed in his most significant work: the Pirelli Skyscraper in Piazza Duca d'Aosta in Milan (1955-1958). The structure was built around a central framework designed by Nervi (127.1 meters). The building appears as a slender and harmonious glass slab that cuts through the architectural space of the sky, designed with a balanced curtain wall, with its long sides narrowing into almost two vertical lines. Even with its character of 'excellence,' this work rightly belongs to the Modern Movement in Italy.

Opere
Industrial design
1923-1929 Porcelain pieces for Richard-Ginori
1927 Pewter and silver objects for Christofle
1930 Large pieces in crystal for Fontana
1930 large aluminum table presented at the IV Triennale di Monza
1930 Designs for printed fabrics for De Angeli-Frua, Milan.
1930 Fabrics for Vittorio Ferrari
1930 Cutlery and other objects for Krupp Italiana
1931 lamps for fountain, Milan
1931 Three libraries for the Opera Omnia of D'Annunzio
1931 Furniture for Turri, Varedo (Milan)
1934 Brustio Furniture, Milan
1935 Cellina Furniture, Milan
1936 Small Furniture, Milan
1936 Arredamento Pozzi, Milan
1936 Watches for Boselli, Milan
1936 scroll armchair presented at the VI Triennale di Milano, produced by Casa e Giardino, then (1946) by Cassina and (1969) by Montina.
1936 Furniture for Home and Garden, Milan
1938 Fabrics for Vittorio Ferrari, Milan
1938 Chairs for Home and Garden
1938 Steel swivel seat for Kardex
Interiors of the Settebello Train
In 1948, he collaborated with Alberto Rosselli and Antonio Fornaroli in creating 'La Cornuta,' the first horizontal boiler espresso machine produced by 'La Pavoni S.p.A.'
In 1949, Collabora collaborated with Visa mechanical workshops in Voghera to create the sewing machine 'Visetta.'
In 1952, collaborated with AVE to create electrical switches.
1955 cutlery for Arthur Krupp
1957 Superleggera Chair for Cassina
1963 Scooter Brio for Ducati
1971 small armchair seat for Walter Ponti

Roberto Papini was born in Pistoia on February 1, 1883, to Engineer Carlo and Clementina of the Marchesi Incontri. R. P. studied physics and mathematics at the Royal University of Pisa; from 1908 to 1910, he was a student at the School of Advanced Studies in Art History directed by Adolfo Venturi at the Royal University of Rome, earning his diploma with full marks after three years. He immediately began writing for local newspapers.
His entire professional career was marked by important positions: director of the Pinacoteca comunale di Prato (1912), of the Galleria Nazionale d’arte Moderna in Rome (1933), and of the Pinacoteca di Brera (1920), appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to oversee the furnishing of the Royal Embassies, Legations, and Consulates abroad (1921-1926), government commissioner of the Royal Artistic-Industrial Museum in Rome with the responsibility of directing it (1928). Over the years, he consistently collaborated with newspapers and magazines, publishing critiques on contemporary art and urban planning. In 1921, he co-founded the magazine 'Architettura e arti decorative' with Giovannoni, Piacentini, Cecchelli, and Grassi, serving on the editorial board. His major contributions as a critic, with articles on architecture and urban planning, were with 'Il Conciliatore' in 1914, 'Corriere della Sera' from 1926, and with 'Il Mondo,' of which he was an editor from its founding in 1922; he also wrote for 'Rassegna italiana' and 'Dedalo' from 1922, and almost continuously from 1914 for 'Emponium'.
Author of many publications on art history, he is remembered for the Catalog of the Things of Art and Antiquities of Italy: Pisa (2 volumes, Rome, Calzone, 1912-1914) and the Catalog of the Municipal Gallery of Prato of 1912, of which he was the curator; Le arti a Monza nel MCMXXIII, from 1923, and finally the monograph on Francesco di Giorgio Martini, in three volumes, from 1946.
His dedication to teaching was significant: he taught Art History at the R. Museo Artistico Industriale di Roma from 1928 to 1931, and from 1929 he was a lecturer in Medieval and Modern Art History, giving courses on architecture at the R. Università per stranieri di Perugia. In 1934, he was appointed to teach Medieval and Modern Art History at the R. Istituto Superiore d’Architettura di Firenze for the first and second courses; finally, he was appointed Professor of History and Styles of Architecture in 1941 at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence, and in 1943, he was responsible for the course on Stylistic and Constructive Characteristics of Monuments.
He made an important contribution to the debate involving the world of culture and politics in Florence immediately after the war, when reconstruction issues were addressed: a member of the Commission for the reconstruction of the historic center of Florence, he expressed his authoritative opinion on several occasions (see The fate of Florence is about to be decided, in «La Nuova Città», nos. 4-3, 1946, and The referendum on the reconstruction of Florence, in «La Nazione del Popolo», November 13, 1946). He died in Modena on November 10, 1957.