About Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti insisted that decoration and modern ideas were not incompatible. Ponti's ideas about blending the old and the new had supporters, among them the fascists of the 1930s. Mussolini and his ministers were enthusiastic about all things new, especially if they preserved cultural identity, and Ponti's writings on the Italianness of his homes were music to their ears. Born in Milan on 18 November 1891 to Enrico Ponti and Giovanna Rigone, Gio Ponti did military service during the First World War in the Pontonier Corps with the rank of captain, from 1916 to 1918, receiving the Bronze Medal and Military Cross. Gio Ponti graduated with a degree in architecture in 1921 from the Milan Polytechnic, and set up a studio with the architects Mino Fiocchi and Emilio Lancia in Milan. Later, he went into partnership with Lancia (Studio Ponti e Lancia, PL: 1926-1933); then with the engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini (Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Soncini, P.F.S.:1933-1945). In 1923 came his public debut at the first Biennial Exhibition of the Decorative Arts in Monza, which was followed by his involvement in organization of the subsequent Triennial Exhibitions on Monza and Milan. From 1923 to 1930 he worked at the Manifattura Ceramica Richard Ginori, in Milan and Sesto Fiorentino, changing the company's whole output. He catapulted the company into a role model of industrial design excellence by decorating simple ceramic forms with elegant neo-classical motifs. In 1928 he founded the magazine Domus. From 1936 to 1961 he was professor on the permanent staff of the Faculty of Architecture at the Milan Polytechnic. In 1941 he resigned as editor of the magazine Domus and set up the magazine Stile, which he edited until 1947. Ponti disregarded conventional boundaries and explored a profound analogy between different fields of art and design, ranging from the minor arts and furniture to overarching architectural schemes. In 1946 he starts a three year project to design Murano glassware for venini. In 1948 he returned to Domus, of which he remained the editor until the end of his life. In 1952 he went into partnership with the architect Alberto Rosselli (Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli, P.F.R.: 1952-1976); after the death of Rosselli he continued to work with his long time partner Antonio Fornaroli. In the 1950's he collaborates with Fornasetti on interiors and furniture design. Ponti also collaborated with the Italian decorator (renowned for his surreal, neo-classical style) on the interiors of the casino at San Remo - which they decorated with enormous playing car motifs - and the vembi-burroughs offices in Genoa and Turin, - where they emblazoned the furniture with intricate images of pens, pencils, sheets of paper and early computers. Gio Ponti died 16 September, 1979.