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GIO PONTI Gio Ponti is one of the forefathers of Italian architecture and FontanaArte is the fruit of his a long black mirrored top and engraved glass legs at the IV Triennale of Monza in 1930, Ponti set to work
versatile and unflagging activity as eclectic designer and cultural promoter. After earning a degree in archi- on an initial series of mirrored furniture, followed by a new series of transparent furniture characterised
tecture in the early years after WWI, he played a decisive role in the rebirth of applied arts and the develop- as “fully crystal” or “all light”. With the power of this vision (as his daughter Lisa says, he was “a designer
ment of Italian design, spearheading a formal and typological overhaul of the elements of architecture in the who wanted to change the world not only with his works, but also with those of an entire generation”),
light of the potentials offered by new industrial production processes. Ponti may be considered the first art Ponti promoted the connubium between the creative genius of Pietro Chiesa and the industrial aptitude and
director in the history of Italian design: in 1923 he was already guiding the artistic development of Richard Gi- scale of Luigi Fontana. We might say that his work to promote the unity of art and industry took concrete
nori. In 1928 he founded the magazine Domus, embarking on the path of popularising and debating themes form in the fusion of Chiesa’s workshop with Luigi Fontana’s industrial glassworks in 1932. This harmoni-
associated with design culture and art that he would pursue for the rest of his life. ous reconciliation of opposites and convergence of objectives, prefigured by Ponti, took form with Pietro
A tireless promoter of modernity, he was the one who intuited and championed the extraordinary expres- Chiesa at his side as artistic directors of the new enterprise, a rib from the Società Anonima Luigi Fontana.
sive potentials of glass in architecture and interior design. After exhibiting a table produced by Fontana with With this pedigree, FontanaArte immediately established itself as an unicum in 20th-century applied arts.
30 Ritratto di Gio Ponti nella casa di Civate Luigi Fontana presenta FontanaArte, Domus 68, 1933 31