Gio Ponti (1891-1979) was one of the most original and inventive minds of twentieth century Italy. In a career spanning over five decades, beginning in the 1920s right up until the end of the 1970s, Ponti made influential contributions to the overlapping fields of modern architecture, furniture, and the decorative arts as well as the fine arts and publishing. Drawn to classical forms while clearly aware of the technological, economic and aesthetic challenge of modernity, his versatile sensibility defies easy categorization. He demonstrated his mastery of a wide range of production methods and materials in complex projects that include private domestic spaces like the Villa Planchart in Caracas, Venezuela, and Italy’s most famous skyscraper, the Pirelli Tower in Milan, as well as metal sculptures, frescoes, ceramics, glass, and textiles, Ponti quietly but consistently revolutionized Italian design – imbuing buildings, chairs, paintings, sculptures, and objects of everyday use with mysterious finesse.
