Graphic design: BETC and Italo Lupi

Photo credits: © Gio Ponti Archives; Editoriale Domus S.p.A., all rights reserved; Paris, MAD, photo Jean Tholance; Francesco Radino; Courtesy Wright Auctions; Associazione Amici di Doccia / Arrigo Coppitz; Vincent Thibert

19 Oct 2018
— 05 May 2019
#TuttoPonti_MAD

Press kit
archi-designer
Gio Ponti
–
Tutto Ponti
Contents

→ Press release
→ About the catalogue
→ Excerpts from the catalogue
Olivier Gabet
Salvatore Licitra
Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas
→ Exhibition design
→ Sponsors and partners
→ Additional photographs
→ Activities for the public
→ Useful information
Press release
–

Considered one of the most influential

architects and designers of the twentieth
century, Gio Ponti (1891-1979) will
be honored at the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs in his first retrospective
in France from October 19th, 2018 to
May 5th, 2019. A prolific creator who was
equally interested in both industrial and
craft production, Ponti revolutionized
post-war architecture, opening up the
way for a new art of living. The exhibition
Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti, Archi-Designer,
presented in the museum’s main hall,
covers the entirety of his long career

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1. Gio Ponti and Giulia
Ponti, Via Dezza, 1957 from 1921 to 1978, highlighting numerous
© Gio Ponti Archives aspects of his work from architecture
to industrial design, from furniture
2. Tarento Cathedral — to lighting, and from the creation of
1964-1970 journals to his incursion into the fields
© Luca Massari of glassware, ceramics and metalwork.
2.

Over 400 pieces, some of which have

never left their place of origin, trace this
multidisciplinary display that combines
architecture, furniture and interior
fittings for private homes and public
buildings (universities and cathedrals).
The exhibition design was conceived
by the agency Wilmotte & Associés in
collaboration with the graphic designer
Italo Lupi.
While Gio Ponti’s work is admired today
by enlightened design enthusiasts
and highly coveted by collectors, it
nevertheless remains little known in
France. This exhibition is an opportunity
to introduce the wider public to the
creative world of this mythical character
from the Italian design scene, whose
generosity and passion stimulated his
contemporaries and continues to inspire
new generations of designers and
architects.

—
1.
 Having received his diploma from the
Milan Polytechnic, Gio Ponti opened
his architecture practice in 1921. In the
beginning, he adopted the principles
of classically inspired architecture with
his villa on the Via Randaccio in Milan.
Named artistic director of the Richard-
Ginori porcelain manufactory in 1923,
he re-evaluated its serial production
system, applying his method to all of
the company’s creations. His works of
neoclassical inspiration were awarded
prizes at the International Exhibition
of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925.
The following year, he designed his first
architectural work abroad, the Ange
volant villa in the Parisian aera, France,
and collaborated with Christofle in Paris
and Venini in Murano. In parallel, Gio
Ponti created a series of modestly priced
3. Parco dei principi furniture with simple forms, called La
Hotel — Rinascente, for the Italian department
Sorrente stores, thereby making the decorative
1960 arts accessible to the greatest number.
© Gio Ponti Archives Thanks to his connections with the
movement Labirinto which gathered
4. Passeggiata designers and manufacturers, he was 4.
able to spread his ideas and promote

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archeologica —
urn with lid, new talents thanks to the exhibitions that In the 1930s, his architectural practice
porcelain he organized at the Monza Biennial, and took a modernist turn with the
Produced by Richard especially through the journal Domus, construction of Case Tipiche and the
Ginori which he founded in 1928. offices for the company Montecatini
in Milan. Among his work in the field
of homewares, he designed lighting for
Fontana Arte, silverware for Krupp, fabrics
for De Angeli-Frua and Ferrari and furniture
for Casa e Giardino.

In the 1940s, Gio Ponti turned his attention

to creating monumental frescos at the
University of Padua’s Palazzo del Bo.
He also returned to oil painting, and to his
passion for writing, opera and the cinema,
creating new screenplays as well as sets
and costumes for la Scala in Milan. At the
end of the war, as a major protagonist
for the “made in Italy” movement, he
promoted Italian design abroad through
his journal Domus and the exhibitions
he organized. He also conceived of two
emblematic objects: the aerodynamic
coffee machine La Cornuta (1949) for
Pavoni and the Leggera chair for Cassina.

3.
 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 448

From 1950 to 1960, at the peak of his

career, Gio Ponti’s style reached a wider
international audience with major private
architectural commissions in Venezuela,
the United States, the Middle East and
even Hong Kong. He created two of his
masterpieces during this period: Villa
Planchart in Caracas and the Pirelli Tower
in Milan. Lightness, transparence, clarity,
color and simplicity: these are the key
words that describe the profusion of
activity coming out of his headquarters
in Milan – a veritable creative laboratory.
He designed numerous objects and
furniture pieces at this time, including the
Distex armchair for Cassina (reissued since
2012 by Molteni&C) and his luminous Printed by

composition for Lumi. In 1957, the chair 6.

Superleggera (a variant of the Leggera),
one of the lightest in the world, became In the 1970s, still seeking transparence
the icon of his furniture designs. and lightness, he envisaged his
http://domus.immanens.com/it/pvPrintWLI.asp?skin=dom&publication=001001&issue=448&page=1&choice=1 1/1

architectural façades as if they were

Gio Ponti was particularly interested in the folded pieces of paper pierced with
5. Superleggera chair interplay between surfaces and colors, geometric forms, as in the Taranto
for Cassina & Giordano and worked towards making walls into Cathedral (1970) and the Denver Art
elements that are no longer load bearing, Museum (1974). He also took a new

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Chiesa Office
1957 & 1953 but rather elevated, ethereal and almost approach to furniture design, which
© Gio Ponti Archives suspended. He favored ceramic wall became more flexible, mobile, light and
coverings that capture and reflect the luminous in order to adapt the space
6. Magazine cover light, as in the hotel Parco dei Principi to contemporary lifestyles.
Domus n°448 — in Sorrento.
march 1967 The exhibition Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti,
Archi-Designer presents a chronological
view of Ponti’s six-decade career in the
fields of architecture, design, interior
design and publishing. An evocation
of the Taranto Cathedral, one of his late
masterpieces, introduces the circuit that
then unfolds in three parts, focusing on
objects, furniture and architecture. Finally,
six “period rooms” conclude the visit with
spectacular reconstructions emphasizing
the global aspect of his work. The garden-
side gallery explores the collaborations
that he undertook with major art-object
manufacturers such as Richard Ginori,
Christofle and Fontana Arte, as well as
with artisans and smaller companies.
Ceramics, glass and metalwork intermingle
with works in papier mâché and enameled
copper.

5.
 The main hall – the backbone of the
exhibition – is punctuated by five
7. Tableware — sections featuring major commissions,
Produced by furniture, lighting and textiles, as well
Franco Pozzi as architectural projects detailed
1967 chronologically through drawings,
Marco Arosio Collection models, photographs and films from
the period. Finally, on the Rivoli side, six
8. Aero teapot — unique spaces have been conceived,
1957 each representing a decade, in order to
Christofle, Paris highlight Ponti’s creations: l’Ange volant
Christofle Collection in the Parisian aera, the Montecatini
building in Milan, the palazzo Bo - Padua
9. Pirelli tower — University, Gio Ponti’s home on the via
Milan Dezza in Milan, the interior of the Parco
1960 dei Principi hotel in Sorrento and finally
© DR the Villa Planchart in Caracas.

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7. 9.

Until the very end, Gio Ponti defended his

notion of an “Italian house”, considered to
be the ultimate expression of an authentic
modern and international civilization.
The expression “from the spoon to the
city”, attributed to the Italian architect
Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909-1969) in
reference to Gio Ponti, perfectly embodies
the personality of the Milanese architect,
whose projects could range from the
infinitely small to the infinitely large.
This catchphrase sums up the breadth of
8. Ponti’s field of exploration, through which
richness and originality remained constant
in his joyful, colorful and very personal
work.
About
the catalogue
–

THE BOOK

This book covers the entirety of Ponti’s

long career, from the 1920s to the late
1970s. Private, public and religious
architecture, furniture, lighting, glass,
ceramics, metalwork, textiles: it explores
every domain to which he applied his
talents. Though his practice was primarily

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based out of Milan, where he built the
iconic Pirelli Tower, Gio Ponti was also
solicited by clients from New York, South
America and Pakistan, among others, for
the design of sumptuous villas and official
buildings. THE AUTHORS
This book serves as both the catalogue
for the exhibition presented at the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs and the first reference Under the direction of
book on Gio Ponti to be published in Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas,
French. It pays tribute to the creative Dominique Forest and Salvatore Licitra.
universe of this legendary character About thirty French and international
from the Italian design scene, whose authors contributed to this work.
generosity and enthusiasm stimulated
his contemporaries and continue to 320 pages
inspire new generations of designers and Format: 23 x 31.5 cm
architects. Hardcover
Approx. 300 illustrations
55 euros
ISBN: 978-2-916914-75-6
Published by MAD
On sale from: October 19th, 2018
Excerpts from the
catalogue
– Foreword by Olivier Gabet

From the forest of possible choices for

some exhibitions, paying tribute this
10. Gio Ponti and his autumn 2018 to Gio Ponti, seemed the
daughter Lisa at the most obvious one. This great tree is
Musée des Arts Décoratifs proudly-rooted (…) self-evident. There is
in Paris, 1973 no particular anniversary to celebrate in
Gio Ponti archives Ponti’s long creative career which started
© Gio Ponti Archives, in the 1920s and remained prolific right
Milan up until his death in 1979. So prolific that
the elegant archidesigner Gio Ponti, with
11. La Conversazione an almost limitless creativity, left behind
Classica (The Classic him a corpus that defies all qualification:
Conversation) cista — dozens of major edifices for the history of
for Richard Ginori, twentieth century architecture, buildings,
1924, houses, museum, cathedral, universities
porcelainn highlighted and factories, the whole world over, from
with gold using an agate Milan to Teheran, Caracas to Denver.
Hundreds of models of objects and pieces

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burnisher.
Sesto Fiorentino, of furniture, thousands of letters (…),
Museo Richard Ginori hundreds of articles for the magazine
della Manifattura di Domus (…).
Doccia, Polo Museale A world of creation which made Ponti the
della Toscana legitimate heir of the greatest artists of the
11.

Italian Renaissance – by redesigning the

contours of another possible world, poetic
and practical, light and bright, vibrant, he
embodied the continuity of a heritage that
still fascinates us today, the Leonardo or
Michelangelo in his field, from the overall
whole down to the very last detail.

In 1978, Tony and Carla Bouilhet, who

were there at his beginning with the
commission for the Ange Volant (a post-
Palladian villa in the Paris region), had
begun to design a retrospective that was
put on hold due to his death a year later,
and if it had taken place, it quite normally
would have been held in the nave of
the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Will we
point out the museum’s major role in the
organisation of the International Exhibition
of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts
in 1925? An important date in Ponti’s life,
because being awarded one of the main
prizes, thanks to his contribution to the
Italian Pavilion via the installation by the
Richard Ginori manufactory, really got his
international career off the ground.

10.
 This timely exhibition renders unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar’s and to Ponti
the place he deserves in the history of
architecture, design and decorative arts,
in short a major part of art history.
Here, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs,
in this spirit of unity which was one of the
permanent motifs of his vision,
Gio Ponti comes face to face once again
with the spirit of the place he loved and

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frequented. A place that represents both
his close relationship with France and his
influence on an international level. The
feeling of seeing Gio Ponti return to the
source of his art, coming back home.

12.

12. Drawings presented In some ways, Paris brought Gio Ponti

at industrial design good luck, and he never forgot it.
exhibition at the In 1973, working with the art critic
11th Milan Triennial — Pierre Restany, François Mathey, director
1957, ink on paper of the museum at that time, devoted an
© Gio Ponti Archives, exhibition to Domus covering not less
Milan than forty-five years of an intellectual
adventure that had shaped a large part of
13. Espresso machine European modernity, as much a platform
model 47, for inspiration as a place to encounter
also known as La artistic talent: the list of partnerships that
Cornuta for La Pavoni, brought together the elite in the field
1948 of modern thought and contemporary
© Gio Ponti Archives, creation is quite head spinning. By way
Milan of a thank-you, Gio Ponti drew an elegant
hand on some of the museum’s headed 13.
writing paper, with slender fingers and
his beautiful fluid handwriting flowing out
of it: “Thank-you my friend for all that
you and the museum have done for me
and Domus, here’s to you Mathey i miei
pensieri fraterni.”
And so there are a great many threads
that tie the Musée des Arts Décoratifs to
Gio Ponti, like a long working partnership,
episodic but faithful, from one decade
to another.
 Gio Ponti: A Guide for Contemporary Use
Salvatore Licitra

I believe that the decision of

the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris
to organise an exhibition dedicated to
Gio Ponti, today, responds to both a
basic need, as well as something more
urgent. There are many reasons for this
choice: Gio Ponti’s long relationship with
the museum’s supporters and directors
(…) and the acknowledgment of the
importance of Ponti’s oeuvre, for
which French culture was an important
point of reference. This is not a case,
therefore, of presenting an account of
“Italian arts”and of a figure from a past and
bygone age, but rather a way of looking at
the present, and at the sources to which
important contemporary expressions of
creativity refer and look for inspiration.
14. Living room at Villa Our intention was that this exhibition on
Arreaza, Caracas — Ponti be comprehensive, a setting in
1956 which all the varied expressions of his long
© Gio Ponti Archives, creative career could come together. (…) 15.
Milan Concerning this “Pontian universe,” finally,
and the renewed attention it is attracting The first is “the gaze as measure.”
15. Letter with drawings today among artists, designers and
architects, there are two terms that I feel it If you observe many of Ponti’s

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to Lisa Ponti —
around 1960, felt-pen on necessary to make explicit at the outset of architectural plans, you will notice they are
paper this initiative. These terms are interrelated, strewn with eyes and pierced by lines that
Milan, private collection. describing the same subject from two trace the visual field. This is architecture
© Gio Ponti Archives, different points of view, and are useful in that is formed and modelled not only
Milan illustrating how Gio Ponti’s work is being based on the functions and availability of
looked at today. spaces, but on the visual experience of
the people who will inhabit them.
Gio Ponti started out as an artist and loved
defining himself as an artist who had
fallen in love with architecture. His work
contains a refined play of composition
expressed in three dimensions, extending
out to include vast portions of reality such
as building facades, or focusing in on
decorative details, walls, openings, lights,
the juxtaposition of materials. (…)
Gio Ponti’s ability to make visual
perception into one of the pillars of his
work, with the detachment worthy of a
director/composer and the freedom of
a true artist, is one of the elements that
most contributes to the consideration
of his oeuvre as a forerunner of a
contemporary mode of perceiving
architecture, colours, spaces and design.
(…)

14.
 Thus emerges a network-like system of
references, forms, archetypes, and terms
that describe the Pontian universe. A sort
of keyboard with which Ponti “composed”
his works, whether the ceramics of the
1920s, the architecture of the 1950s,
or the furnitureof the 1970s. (…)
Ponti certainly visited Etruscan museums
and made notes about the décor,
redesigned and reproduced Phoenician
vases at Richard Ginori, developed
a passion for Palladian obelisks, spoke
to us enthusiastically about Serlio ... yet
in Ponti’s career there is no “Etruscan,”
“Phoenician,” “Palladian,” or, much less,
“16th century” period.
These suggestions, and many others,
participated in Ponti’s work and shaped its
creative impulse, but he then consciously
transfigured them thanks to the distance
an artist maintains from the colours on his
palette, the vibrations of which he values
and knows, but which he uses with the
freedom and inventiveness necessary
in new ideas. (…)
In conclusion, I hope that among the
people who visit the exhibition and
read this catalogue, there will be some,
perhaps the most curious or the most
restless, who adopt the approach that

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Gio Ponti certainly would have, disobeying
and all but disregarding the chronological
layout. Doing so will allow them to string
together similarities and cross-references
between the works of design, painting and
architecture that were the “expression of
16. Gio Ponti” (as he used to title his work),
to comprehend their spirit but also, and
16. Scala del Sapere — above all, to experience the reasons why
fresco created by Refraction so many contemporary artists, designers
Gio Ponti, and architects from all over the world look
Palazzo del Bo, How does Ponti’s activity evolve over to the Pontian universe for inspiration.
University of Padua time? What is the most appropriate
© Photograph Tom way to describe its development over
Mannion his six-decade career? Inevitably any
itinerary of this sort is, by its very nature,
17. Illustration for Una chronological. This allows us to create
piccola casa ideale — connections between Ponti’s work and
1939 the historical and cultural context in
© Gio Ponti Archives, which it arose, and this is significant.
Milan Yet if we wish to avoid being distracted
by the“context,” precisely because of
the peculiarities and marked artistic slant
of Ponti’s work (…) we must distance
ourselves from this chronological vision
and imagine another, in which each
individual work provides us with the
elements necessary to relate it to the
others. Refraction, then, in the sense that
the element that interests us is atemporal,
intrinsic to a single work, and seemingly
recognizable in previous or subsequent
projects (the theory of mirror neurons
comes to mind).

17.
 Bridges between Milan and Paris
Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas

The bonds connecting Gio Ponti

to France arose at the beginning of his
career, while the young Milanese architect
was artistic director for the porcelain
manufacturer Richard Ginori. For two years
he had been at work on the profound
renewal of the manufacturer’s style while
at the same time trying to optimize its
mode of production, when the Parisian
elite began busying itself with the highly
anticipated preparation of the Exposition
internationale des arts décoratifs et
industriels modernes in 1925.
He convinced the Richard family to take
part in it and to open itself up to new
markets(…). This Parisian triumph was
doubly rewarded: not only did he win
away first prize in the ceramics category,
18. Candelabra Arrow — with the porcelain vase La conversazione
1928 classica, but he made the acquaintance
tin of Tony Bouilhet, young heir and director
Heritage Christofle of the firm Christofle who was also the
© Stéphane Guarrigues head of Arts of the Tableware for the
French section. (…) Ponti’s effervescent 19.
19. Bottle — personality immediately fascinated the
Produced by Venini Parisian jeweller. (…)The following year, golf club, just a few cable’s lengths from
he commissioned Ponti to design their Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein-de-Monzie. This

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Circa 1940
Glass, crinoline country home, located in the Parisian project realised the architect’s desire to
© DR Region, on the heights of the Saint-Cloud design a modern, “Italian” style house
conceived as a single unit, from the roof
to the garden without forgetting about
the doorknobs. The ornamental character
imagined by Christofle in polished
steel and nicknamed Pony (Ponti-Tony),
applicable on a large number of objects,
from radiator knobs to cutlery and
cigarette holders, forever sealed their
creative partnership. This reciprocal
emulation was further reinforced even
by the fact that, beginning in 1928, they
became relatives thanks to the marriage
between Tony Bouilhet and Ponti’s niece,
Carla Borletti.
After the war, Ponti’s sole focus was on
participating in the economic, cultural
and political reconstruction of his country
thanks to the promotion of the arts.
In retaking the helm of the magazine
Domus, he positioned himself in a
strategic post for the observation and
promotion of Italian and international
creations in the fields of architecture,
design and art. All throughout his life,
and particularly in the 1950s, Ponti was a
fervent defender of the “Made in Italy”
abroad. With contagious enthusiasm he
encouraged initiatives promoting Italian
design in Paris, New York and London.
(…) In 1967, with the exhibition “Domus
formes italiennes” Ponti achieved his most
triumphant success in Paris. (…)

18.

20.
20.Residential Building Ponti’s unconditional love for French
Via Randaccio — culture certainly contributed to the manner
exterior view. Milan, in which Domus supported design in this
© Gio Ponti Archives, country, whether in the simple articles
Milan of the 1920s or the expanded special
issues of the 1960s. The biggest names
of the architectural and artistic scene
were regularly championed in its pages:
the home by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret
in Boulogne-sur-Mer published in 1928,
the interior design and furnishings of Jean
Royère in 1939, the prefabricated home
of Henri Prouvé in 1950, the experimental
house of Claude Parent in 1957, and
sculpted dwellings of André Bloc in 1965,
to name just a few.
To evoke the importance of Ponti’s
contribution in the history of 20th-century
architecture, the French press went
as far as to describe him as the
“Italian Le Corbusier.” (…) At the end of
his life, Ponti’s French friends desired
to pay tribute to him: in 1968 he was
inducted into the Académie d’architecture,
while in 1973 the Union centrale des arts
décoratifs, at the behest of Pierre Restany
and François Mathey, the museum’s head
curator, organised an exhibition on his
editorial work, entitled ‘1928-1973 Domus:
quarante-cinq ans d’architecture, design,
art. Expressing the joy the city inspired
in him and his inclination towards it, Ponti
desired, he said, “to die in Paris at the
home of his friend Tony.”20 In Pierre
Restany’s views, L’Ange volant, his only
building in France so effectively embodied
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his vision of an Italianstyle humanism.
Residential Building
Collaboration with Emilio Lancia
Milan, Via Randaccio
1924–26
During the First World War, as a young
soldier Gio Ponti had the opportunity
to lodge in several abandoned villas
designed by Andrea Palladio, which he
sketched abundantly. This admiration for
the Renaissance architect stayed with
him throughout his life (…) Niches, urns,
entablatures, tympanums, obelisks: this
architectural vocabulary is transposed
with humorous lightness into his building
on Via Randaccio, the first building Ponti
designed – in collaboration with Emilio
Lancia – and where he resided with his
family from 1926 to 1936.
The building plan fans out with four
facades, each possessing its own
distinctive rhythm. The concave facade
overlooking the garden, the most ornate,
resembles a small Palladian theatre (…)
Each floor is imagined as an apartment
unto itself, with rooms distributed around
a circular antechamber that divides the
living area from the sleeping area (…)
Ponti would later recall this first building,
designed in the “Novecento” spirit, as an
example of “architecture for architecture’s
sake.”
 Borletti Building
Collaboration with Emilio Lancia
Milan, Via San Vittore
1928

With the apartment building in

Via Randaccio in Milan in 1924–26
and L’Ange volant in Garches in 1927–28,
the Borletti building numbers among
Gio Ponti’s very first architectural
realisations. Built in collaboration with
the architect Emilio Lancia, this luxurious
eight-story construction destined for
the Borletti, one of the great families of
the Milanese commercial middle class,
daringly reinterprets the neoclassical
stylistic repertoire in a “Novecento”
spirit. Obelisks, oculi, niches, panels and
balconies decorate the facade with a
21. certain formal sobriety, as does the interior
courtyard to which equal importance is
accorded.

Laporte House

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Milan, Via Benedetto Brin
1935–36

The Laporte House is subdivided into

three apartments spread over four floors.
Each apartment has a unique plan that
respects the Pontian division of interior
space into three areas: day, night and
services. The double height of the
top-floor apartment makes it possible
to design its living spaces from multiple
points of view, especially the large
open volume of the living room-dining
room. (…) Finally, echoing the ideas of
Le Corbusier regarding the roof-terrace
and reinterpreting the structure of the
22. Pompeian villa gardens, Ponti conceived
a vast rooftop terrace that takes up half
of the uppermost floor. With its pond, its
21. Borletti Building, vegetable garden and its sandbox, it’s
entrance hallway — considered as an entirely separate room.
Milan, 1928 Surrounded by walls that alternate with
© Gio Ponti Archives, pergolas and equipped with Italian-style
Milan retractable awnings, it has “the sky for a
ceiling.” “The house becomes a creation,
22.Inside Gio Ponti’s a unique composition of spaces and
family apartment, Casa of light that, put into relationship with
Laporte — one another, arouse in us emotions that
Milan, 1936 are more beautiful, fresher, closer to
© Gio Ponti Archives, architecture and our vision of life,”
Milan wrote Ponti on the subject of this house
on whose top floor he lived between
1936 and 1943.
 Case tipiche
Milan
1931–38

The case tipiche (“typical homes”)

refer to a group of residential buildings
designed by Gio Ponti for a number
23. From left to right, of general contractors and located in
Domus Fausta, various Milan neighbourhoods. (…) In
Domus Carola and his view, the home was an orderly place,
Domus Julia — a receptacle of the joys of life and the
Photograph Paolo beauty of the world, which must be
Rosselli, Milan able to reflect civilisation at its highest
1931-1936 point. These domus also inaugurated a
© Paolo Rosselli new architectural style. Despite using
numerous traditional elements of Italian 23.
24. Chairs for the architecture, their essential lines bring
Montecatini offices — them closer to the more rationalist, First Montecatini Building
1938, aluminium, Modernist aesthetic. The homes in Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Soncini
imitation leather, Via Letizia were conceived to form Milan, Largo Stati Uniti d’America
Bakelite. Weil am Rhein, neighbourhood units and compose 1936–38
Vitra Design a harmonious, modern, and colourful
Museum. urban landscape. Gardens serve as a
Photographs Jürgen transition between the buildings and the Exemplary creation of Milanese
Hans street. While variations in volume and rationalism of the 1930s imagined down
and Andreas Sütterlin typology are reduced, each building to the smallest details by Gio Ponti for
nevertheless conserves a degree of the chemical group Montecatini, this

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25. First Montecatini originality. Balconies, terraces, loggias office building constituted a veritable
Building, exterior view, and bay windows constitute the minimalist revolution in the architectural and working
Milan decoration of the facades and recall the worlds and contributed to the advent of
1936–38 architect’s belief that roofs and facades industrial design in Italy. Commissioned by
© Gio Ponti Archives, are made for being lived in just like the the group’s president, Guido Donegani,
Milan rest of the house. and built in record time (less than
two years), with the collaboration of
engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio
Soncini and work supervisor Pier Giulio
Bosisio, it bears witness profound
economic and social changes that Milan
had experienced. Indeed, with the
development of the service sector there
emerges the figure of the office worker
in a city that saw its population double in
less than twenty years. (…)Service areas
available to personnel after work (library,
dressing rooms, hair salon, pharmacy,
bar, deli, clothing store) were located on
the basement level. Finally, ever in pursuit
of the idea of bringing out the best in
workers, a glass partition made it possible
to see the cooks at work in the dining hall
kitchen.

24. 25.
 This space, which painting could crush or
annihilate, is transformed into a structure
of colour: it permeates the visitor, who
penetrates in this way into the heart of
the heroic narrative deployed around him
and participates in it. This decision to
envelope the volume is also found in the
older spaces where Ponti intervened: in
the medical room, his desks evoke the
mouldings of the consoles that support
the 14th-century ceiling, almost as if they
reflected their aesthetic quintessence
onto the surrounding walls.
Ponti’s modernity is certainly functional,
but it’s also careful to insert itself into the
complicated weave of the memories of
the past; his classicism is undeniable, but
as a perfect point of equilibrium between
practical necessities and the aspirations
of the imagination. A lesson that won’t be
26. forgotten.

26. Basilica, Palazzo Tradition and Modernity at the University

del Bo, of Padua Gio Ponti, behind the Mirror – Venini and
University of Padua — Fontana Arte
© Tom Mannion
His first intervention in the Palazzo del Bo
took place for free. (…)Ponti conceived Countless designers and architects are
27. Lamp — and created a magisterial path, the Scala renowned today because of their designs
del Sapere (“Staircase of Knowledge”), for Venini and/or Fontana Arte but,

press kit
for Fontana Arte
circa 1933 which made it possible to access the surprisingly, Gio Ponti is rarely mentioned
glass rooms he recreated without having to in connection with these prominent glass
© Gio Ponti Archives, suffer any intrusion from the blinding makers. The paradox is even more blatant
Milan brightness of Fagiuoli’s courtyard. The when you consider that Ponti provided
ascent up to the main floor gives its entire the impulse that shaped the evolution
breadth to the project. There, too, the these two very different companies,
treatment of the architecture relies on leading to the prestigious status they
the use of colour: not only the frescoes enjoy today. (…)
but the entire monumental staircase, or
the precious marbles that decorate the
steps, offer a basic tone in relationship
with which the pictorial cycle is deployed
in perfect harmony. This ascent, to the
rhythm of the conquests of knowledge,
actually prepares the spectator for
the soft, Mediterranean colours of the
president’s office, which completes the
tour of the courtyard. (…)In reality, the
architect discussed even the smallest
choices with the rector, guiding him on
visits of the workshops of the artists
with whom, often, he had shared the
experience of the Milanese Triennale.
Nevertheless, it was above all in the
main rooms that we can fully appreciate
the acuity of his gaze, for he refused to
conceive of the content as separate from
the container. For Ponti, architecture
was design and viceversa: thus, in the
great Basilica room, the diamond motif
that characterizes the ceiling is elegantly
evoked on the backs of the banquettes
and the red of the columns, doubly
narrow, magnifies the giant walls painted 27.
by Pino Casarini.
 Gio Ponti and Richard Ginori

The Richard Ginori manufactory provided

28.
28. & 29. Decoration of In the six decades during which he
worked with glass as a material, either with
Gio Ponti with a place for training at the
beginning of his career and not just in the
field of ceramics. He gained experience
during his time there and learnt more
about the industry, the decorative arts and
interior design. This fascinating period
revealed his vocation as promoter of the
arts and acted as a prelude to founding
29. Domus magazine. A strong defender
of high-quality mass production, Ponti
held the position of artistic director at
Richard Ginori’s factory. He also had an

press kit
ceramic tiles for the
dining room of the Fontana Arte or Venini, Ponti was first and outstanding sense of all things related to
Stock Market, Palazzo foremost motivated by his obsession with brand identity and marketing. Thanks to
Mezzanotte, Milan — architecture. It was also the driving force this first unique collaboration, he acquired
1931-1932 in transforming every material he came in a taste for ceramics at the beginning
© Diego Motto contact with. His elaboration of an analogy of his career and it stayed with him
to a pure architecture, to crystal as form throughout his life in diverse contexts and
30. Bowl Labyrinth — is enumerated many times in his writings; different fields, whether it was working as
Richard Ginori “When architecture is pure, it is pure a designer or journalist.
1926 as a crystal – magic, closed, exclusive,
porcelain autonomous, uncontaminated,
Sesto Fiorentino, Museo uncorrupted, absolute, definitive like
Richard Ginori della a crystal.” Standing discreetly behind
Manifattura di Doccia, these glass companies, he increasingly
Polo Museale della delegated to his colleagues and
Toscana associates like Pietro Chiesa at Fontana
© DR Arte or Tomaso Buzzi at Venini and
connected his students to the means
of realizing their projects: Saul Steinberg
to Fontana Arte and Massimo Vignelli
to Venini, or his friend Piero Fornasetti
to both companies. His combined
endeavours opened the manufacture
of glass into formerly unexplored
aesthetic territory.

30.
 Villa Planchart
Caracas
1953–57
In the 1950’s, strengthened by its
petroleum resources, Venezuela saw
31.Double-height living unprecedented economic growth.
room, Villa Planchart — Transforming very rapidly, its capital
Caracas wanted to rival with the modernity of other
1953-57 Latin-American capitals like Rio de Janeiro
© Antoine Baralhé or Mexico City. Armando and
Anala Planchart, collectors and lovers of
32. View of the facade — modern architecture, contributed to this
Villa Planchart by inviting Gio Ponti who was by then
Caracas internationally recognised thanks
1953-57 to Domus magazine, to design their villa
© Antoine Baralhé on the hilltops of Caracas.
31.
32.
“Your house will be (…) like a big butterfly
poised on the hillside”, Ponti specified in a
letter resuming the future owners’ wishes.
Indeed, lightness was the key feature
of the ensemble: elevated walls fixed to
the framework appeared like suspended
screens and defined the spatial character
of the house. The roof, sitting like a wing
on the summit, finished off the building
and conformed to the principal of forma
finita (finished form) announced by the
architect. At night, a lighting system
emphasized the contours and in the
daytime, the white walls punctuated with
bay windows created a sparkling surface.
Throughout the 1300 square metres,
press kit
Ponti favoured the multiplicity of
viewpoints, the openings facing the
horizon and the view of the surrounding
mountains. He created this house like a
life-size abstract sculpture that can be
visited from inside in an uninterrupted
series of constantly changing spectacles.
(…)
A kaleidoscopic play of colours brought
the surfaces of the rooms progressively
to life. The yellow striped ceilings of the
lounge, library and small dining room
echoed the marble mosaic floor of the
entrance hall, but also the multicoloured
designs of the ceiling in the main dining
room. The interior doors and windows
were all unique thanks to the geometric
motifs painted in pink, yellow and sky blue
onto a white background. (…)
As with the “Ange volant” in France,
Villa Planchart is the transposition of an
Italian dream, but this time amidst the
tropical vegetation of Venezuela.
All of the materials, marble and aluminium,
the carpentry, but also the furniture and
the craft objects were brought from Italy
by boat. (…) A total work of art, today,
Villa Planchart is home to the foundation
that watches over the conservation of the
building in its entirety.
 press kit
33.

33. & 34. Pirelli Tower — Pirelli Tower

Milan Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli
1960 Collaboration with Giuseppe Valtolina,
© Paolo Monti, Milano, Egidio Dell’Orto, Arturo Danusso and Pier
1965 Luigi Nervi
Milan, Piazza Duca d’Aosta
1956–60

34.
A symbol of Milan’s economic dynamism
and of the euphoria of the post-war
period, it was built for Pirelli, a company
specialising in tyres and rubber goods,
in place of the production workshops
destroyed during the war. 127 metres and
31 stories tall, situated right in the heart
of Milan, across from the central train
station, this building was, at the time of its
inauguration, one of the tallest in Europe.
Its construction was the fruit of the
collaboration between Gio Ponti and his
studio and engineer Arturo Danusso, and
starting in 1954 with Pier Luigi Nervi, both
of whom were experts in prestressed
concrete and advised Ponti on the
building’s form and structure.
Following the experience of the
Montecatini building, Gio Ponti solidified
with this project his theory of the forma
finita (finite form) by opting for a volume
that would admit neither additions nor
removals. (…)
 Interior Design
of the Hotel Parco dei Principi
Sorrento
1960

The ceramic plates that welcomed

After having Gio Ponti supervise the
interior design of the Royal Continental
Hotel in Naples, its owner, Roberto
Fernandes, solicited his intervention
once more for the creation of the Hotel
Parco dei Principi in Sorrento (1960), as
well as its companion structure in Rome
(1961–64).
With these commissions, the architect
renewed his research of the 1930s on
the Mediterranean residence and on
hotels in general. Following the example
of the Dane Arne Jacobsen, who
designed the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel
in Copenhagen several years earlier, Gio
Ponti implemented his conception of the
hotel as a comprehensive work of art.
Ponti opted for a chromatic solution that
immersed the eye in white and blue, as
visitors in the entrance were made by
Fausto Melotti and the ceramic shingle
by Ceramica Joo. The latter recalled the
grotto walls in Baroque gardens; this
metaphor is continued in the hotel’s park
where Ponti imagined a swimming pool
“as a reflecting pool for wood nymphs,”
from which emerges a diving board on
an island in the middle of the water.
Surfaces and Colours
Ceramics Applied to Architecture and
Interior Design
Ceramics were for Gio Ponti a site of
unparalleled experimentation that allowed
him to reformulate elements of the Italian

if welcoming the external environment
inside the hotel. He developed, with the
aid of Ceramica D’Agostino in Salerno,
thirty tiles of 20 centimetres per side
decorated in blue and white motifs which,
assembled and arranged in different ways,
made it possible to obtain hundreds of
different floors, sufficient to make each
room unique.
35.
press kit
cultural tradition and integrate them into
a system of industrial production, from
the design of tableware, decorative
objects and bathroom fixtures to the
creation of tiles for floors and walls. He
began to familiarise himself with this
material beginning in 1923 when he
became artistic director of the porcelain
manufacturer Richard Ginori. (…)

35. Ceramic tile by the

Ceramica D’Agostino
factory for Hotel Parco
dei Principi in Sorrento
Ceramica D’Agostino
© Gio Ponti Archives,
Milan

36. Lobby of Hotel Parco

dei Principi —
in Sorrento
© Gio Ponti Archives,
Milan

36.

35.
35. Ceramic tile by the After the war, Ponti once again drew from
Ceramica D’Agostino this world as he became, from 1946 to
1953, the artistic director of the Imola
He also renewed the repertoire of the
Salerno ceramic producer, Ceramica
D’Agostino, designing thirty-three motifs
both geometric and vegetal, blues, blacks
and whites, which, once assembled, gave
rise to over a hundred different decors.
Thanks to this solution, Ponti personalised
all the rooms of the Sorrento’s Hotel Parco
dei Principi (1960). Fifteen years later, he
designed a “hymn to colour” to dress the
floors of the headquarters of the Austrian
newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten in
Salzburg. Polychrome geometric designs
were employed and adapted to the
irregular forms of the rooms. Thus the floor
“stole the show” from the architecture
and became the true protagonist of the
building. A similar solution was adopted in
Singapore to cover the facade of the Shui

press kit
factory for Hotel Parco
dei Principi in Sorrento Ceramics Cooperative. Hing department store in 1977–78.
Ceramica D’Agostino Continuing his exploration into this
© Gio Ponti Archives, material, in 1956–57 he created a
Milan line of diamond-point coloured tiles
for the Milanese firm Ceramica Joo.
Passing from a flat surface to reliefs,
he reinterpreted the diamond-shaped
bosses of Renaissance palaces: applied
to exterior walls, these tiles, thanks
to their glistening texture, capture the
changing sunlight and thus animate the
facades. This finishing, which made its
first appearance on the facade of the
church of San Luca Evangelista in Milan
(1955–60), was utilised recurrently for
his religious and private structures; it was
even responsible for the nickname of the
Villa Arreaza in Caracas, “La Diamantina.”
Even more complex, the facade of the
Montedoria building (1964–70) in Milan
combines four sorts of emerald-green tiles
in various degrees of relief. With coloured
tessellation in the shape of shingle, Ponti
reinterprets, once again for Ceramica Joo,
the traditional shingle mosaic of Liguria,
which he used to cover both interior and
exterior walls at the Villa Planchart (1953–
57), the Villa Nemazee (1957–64), and the
Parco dei Principi hotels (1960–64). (…)

35.
 Lo Scarabeo sotto una foglia
Plan for a family house
1964

In 1964, Gio Ponti published in the pages

of Domus a plan for a family home, a
prototype entitled Lo Scarabeo sotto una
foglia (Beetle under a leaf ), the layout of
which he presented to readers on a 1:50
scale. This small oval house was entirely
covered in white and green ceramic tiles,
both inside and outside, including the
roof. Thanks to the brilliance of the tiles 38.
and the choice of colouring, the home’s
facing was supposed to absorb the Completely tiled in white and famous
surrounding landscape and fuse with it, for its spiral staircase covered in grey
like a beetle with its shell. Imagined like fur, it housed an important collection of
37. Cathedral, exterior, a leaf fallen to the ground, its projecting contemporary art with works by Lucio
Taranto — roof protects the facades from the rain Fontana, Agostino Bonalumi, Julio Le Parc
1964–70 and sun. and Raymond Hains. A monumental white
© Gio Ponti Archives, In 1966, the avant-garde art collector monochrome was created specifically to
Giobatta Meneguzzo commissioned his decorate the walls of the entryway. Soon

press kit
Milan
own version of the “Beetle” in Malo, in after its inauguration, this house became
38. Domus cover — the province of Vicenza. Following Ponti’s a gathering place for the artists, art critics
n. 414 advice, he enlisted designer Nanda Vigo and art dealers of the time.
Mai 1964 to design the interiors.
Cathedral
Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli
Taranto
1964–70

The project of the Taranto Cathedral was

born out of the need to create a religious
centre closer to the new direction in
which the city was expanding. The
International Institute of the Liturgical
Arts, charged with the project, and
Archbishop Guglielmo Motolese chose
Gio Ponti to create it. From its genesis
in 1964 to its inauguration in 1970, this
building was reworked repeatedly until
the Milanese architect arrived at a design
that transmitted his conception of the
sacred. Multiple sources of inspiration
accompanied his reflection: the whiteness
of Puglia’s traditional architecture, the
austerity of Franciscan spirituality, and the
stone dentils of Gothic cathedrals.
Faced with need to give the cathedral a
character of both bareness and grandeur,
the Milanese architect solved the problem
by opting for the creation of two facades:
“One, the lesser one, for entering the
church.

37.
 Ponti chose materials of an austere
quality: reinforced concrete, left visible in
certain places, and a coat of white in the
extension of the Mediterranean tradition.
In the building’s interior he also opted for a
simple décor of flat tints of colour ranging
from yellow to green.
Around the structure, Ponti imagined an
island of greenery whose unconstrained
appearance would recall the Garden of
Eden. In front of the cathedral, a reflecting
pool composed of three levels splits in
two the vibratory quality of the rays of light
traversing the facade. (…)
Green is the prevailing colour in the
church’s interior: the almond green that
covers the bays and the floor tiling with
more intense tones poetically unite
the interior and exterior. The cathedral
was supposed to be as if “attacked by

press kit
the green”4 of climbing plants partially
covering the curtain and, in a pantheistic
conception, symbolically linking the Earth
and the sky. This intent was grasped by
the citizens of Taranto who, immediately
following the inauguration, offered
plants to supply the garden. Today,
39. due to the chaotic development of the
neighbourhood, the cathedral’s immediate
39. Gabriela chair — The other, the greater one, accessible surrounding no longer, unfortunately,
1971 only to the view and the wind: a facade transmit the architect’s vision. But the
steel, leather ‘for the air’ […] with eighty windows openwork silhouette, where material and
Milan open onto ‘the vastness,’ which is the light merge to become “metamaterial,” still
private collection ‘dimension’ of the mystery of the eternal drives to the extreme this tension towards
© Gio Ponti Archives, presence of God.” Referencing the biblical transparency.
Milan ark and Taranto’s maritime tradition,
the building eventually took the shape
of a ship with a rectangular-plan nave
surmounted by a curtain, a double cement
wall 41 metres tall rising from a withdrawn
position, in the middle of the building.
Hexagonal-shaped openings perforate this
double wall and allow the immensity of the
sky to filter in. This way, the perception of
the subtle play between light and shadow
varies continuously according to the
weather.
 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 46
16/04/2018 Domus - n° 1
17/04/2018 Domus - n° 21 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 30

Gio Ponti and Domus

1970–79

Printed by Printed by
The 500th issue of Domus, in July 1971,
was dedicated to the director, “whom we
Printed by

40. 41. 42. 43.

Printed by

16/04/2018 Domus - n° 123 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 134 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 152

17/04/2018 Domus - n° 144

love as a man and as a mentor, and who

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has guided this magazine for a good thirty-

five years.” Gio Ponti, who was nearly 80,
was still overflowing with creative energy.
In Domus he shared his enthusiasm for
a new commission, a chair “that’s all
back” or “narrow-seated,” which revived
Printed by
Printed by
Printed by Printed by
his irrepressible love for craftsmanship
17/04/2018 Domus - n° 156
44. 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 258
45. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 259
46. 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 276
47. and industry: “These furnishings (what
a passion!) comfort me at the age of 20
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years times 4.”

The beginning of the 1970s witnessed the
publication of Gio Ponti’s last works, light
and airy architecture, designed to capture
and reflect light. (…)
It was a decade of celebrations and
Printed by
Printed by Printed by Printed by
commemorations: in 1973, Domus was
17/04/2018 Domus - n° 278
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49. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 316
50. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 318
51. invited to look back on its forty-five
years of activity at the Musée des Arts
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Décoratifs in Paris. In the introduction

press kit
to the exhibition catalogue,1 Gio Ponti
unveiled the secret to a success anchored
“in the heart of those who make it,
Domus is an art magazine that dreams
of being a work of art.” The choice to
Printed by
Printed by Printed by Printed by
published texts in the original language,
17/04/2018 Domus - n° 364
52. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 379
53. 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 406
54. 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 428
55. Ponti added, brought with it a change: it
transformed a periodical that was initially
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of typical “Milanese improvisation” into a

“multilingual” magazine, a meeting point
for different simultaneous expressions of a
universal culture.

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17/04/2018 Domus - n° 440

56. 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 455
57. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 458
58. 17/04/2018 Domus - n° 466
59.
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16/04/2018 Domus - n° 537

60. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 547
61. 16/04/2018 Domus - n° 578
62. 23/04/2018 Domus - n° 599
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40. Domus Cover 51. Domus Cover 59. Domus Cover 65. Domus Cover
n. 1 — n. 276 — n. 428 — n. 547 —
January 1928 November 1952 July 1965 June 1975

41. Domus Cover 52. Domus Cover 60. Domus Cover 66. Domus Cover
n. 21 — n. 278 — n. 440 — n. 578 —
September 1929 January 1953 July 1966 January 1978

42. Domus Cover 53. Domus Cover 61. Domus Cover 67. Domus Cover
n. 30 — n. 291 — n. 455 — n. 599 —
June 1930 February 1954 October 1967 October 1979

43. Domus Cover 54. Domus Cover 62. Domus Cover

n. 46 — n. 316 — n. 458 —
October 1931 March 1956 January 1968

44. Domus Cover 55. Domus Cover 63. Domus Cover

n. 123 — n. 318 — n. 466 —
March 1938 May 1956 September 1969

press kit
45. Domus Cover 56. Domus Cover 64. Domus Cover
n. 134 — n. 364 — n. 537 —
February 1939 March 1960 August 1974

46. Domus Cover 57. Domus Cover

n. 144 — n. 379 —
December 1939 June 1961

47. Domus Cover 58. Domus Cover

n. 152 — n. 406 —
August 1940 September 1963

48. Domus Cover

n. 156 —
December 1940

49. Domus Cover

n. 258 —
May 1951

50. Domus Cover

n. 259 —
June 1951
Exhibition
design
–
Jean-Michel Wilmotte
Architect and designer Jean-Michel
Wilmotte studied architecture and the
École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc
(Belgium) and interior design at the École
Camondo, founding his own agency in
Paris in 1975. An academic and a man
of culture, he has a particular fondness
for contemporary architectural grafting
projects, and for designing cultural spaces
and museums. Over more than forty
years, he has continually developed and
diversifed his activities and his expertise,
orienting himself towards large-scale
architecture and urban design projects.
Today, his agency – which counts 270
collaborators of 25 different nationalities –
comprises two branches: Wilmotte &
Associés and the design studio Wilmotte &
Industries.
Among his many designs are: in Paris, the
Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural
Center, Station F – the world’s largest
start-up campus – and the renovation of
the Hotel Lutetia; the headquarters of
the group L’Oréal in Clichy; the stadium
in Nice; the Daejeon cultural center
in South Korea; the luxury residences
Allées Richaud and Allées Foch in
Versailles; the headquarters of the group
Unilever in Rueil-Malmaison; the London
headquarters of Google and JCDecaux;
the Ferrari Sporting Management Center
in Maranello (Italy); an exhibition and
convention center in São Paulo (Brazil);
and an ecological park in Baku, Azerbaijan,
as part of the 2015 European Games.
Wilmotte & Associés has developed its
expertise in the field of exhibition design
through its designs for major institutions,
including: the Grand Louvre and the
Musée d’Orsay in Paris; the Museum
of Islamic Art in Doha (Qatar); and the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Netherlands),
named Best European Museum in 2015.
The exhibition design was conceived thanks to the expertise
of Jean-Michel Wilmotte and his agency Wilmotte & Associés.
Jean-Michel Wilmotte cares deeply about
preserving our cultural heritage and
wishes to raise awareness among young
architects about issues surrounding the
conservation and restoration of historic
buildings. To this end, he created the
Wilmotte Foundation in 2005, dedicated
to the promotion of “contemporary
grafting”.
press kit
The exhibition design
Jean-Michel Wilmotte – himself a
longtime admirer of Gio Ponti’s work –
invites the visitor to discover the artist’s
career and 400 of his works through an
exhibition design articulated around three
powerful sequences and a retrospective,
which together offer a comprehensive
immersion.
Taking full advantage of the building’s
height with the podiums in the main hall
and the partial reconstruction of the
Taranto cathedral, Jean-Michel Wilmotte
plays with transparency, light, resonances
between works and breathing spaces
to bring the artist and his designs to life
for the audience. He does not seek to
“direct” the experience, but rather to
“augment” it, by widening its scope and
emphasizing gestures, forms, colors, and
materials.
In this intervention that is as sensitive as
it is inventive, Jean-Michel Wilmotte has
succeeded in pursuing a posteriori the
creative work of Gio Ponti by offering a
thousand and one ways to perceive his
genius.
Sponsors and partners
–
The Friends “The Friends of the Musée des Arts
of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs” is a New York-based non-profit
Décoratifs organization dedicated to fundraising for
the institution among American patrons.
Several times a year, in conjunction with
the Boards, the institution presents an
overview of the actions undertaken and
submits the various projects that require
financing. Since the organization’s creation
under the initiative of Hélène David-Weill,
the generosity of the Friends has allowed
for the reopening of the museum in 2006
as well as numerous acquisition projects,
restorations and exhibitions.
Again this year, the Friends wished to be
associated with two of the institution’s
major projects highlighting design: the
exhibition “Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti, archi-
designer” and “La folle histoire du design,
à travers un nouveau parcours”. Without
their faithful support, these two projects
would not have been possible.

Molteni&C, a company within the Molteni
group alongside Dada, Unifor and Citterio,
is pleased to announce its support of Tutto
Ponti: Gio Ponti, archi-designer, the only
exhibition ever presented in France on the
work of the great master.
Molteni&C is participating in the exhibition
applied arts and publishing. The reedition
project has resulted in a collection of
furniture
– models created by Ponti as one-of-
a-kind pieces or as limited editions –
following a long process of research,
selection and prototype studies. The
collection, realized in collaboration with

not only as a sponsor, but also by lending
several original pieces designed by Gio
Ponti belonging to the collection of the
Molteni Museum.
Thanks to an agreement signed by Ponti’s
heirs, which provides for worldwide
exclusivity in the reedition and sale of all
furniture designed by Gio Ponti (with the
exception of rights accorded to other
manufacturers), Molteni&C has launched
an initiative to promote the precious
research that the designer undertook
for over fifty years in numerous fields,
including architecture, design,
press kit
the Gio Ponti Archives and under the
artistic direction of the agency Cerri
& Associati, comprises furniture and
accessories designed by Gio Ponti
between 1935 and the 1970s, and today
form part of the Molteni&C Heritage
Collection. The collection, enriched with
new pieces every year, includes 14 pieces
of furniture in 21 variations.
#MolteniGroup
#GioPontiArchives
#TuttoPonti_MAD

Skills-based sponsors : The exhibition design was conceived thanks to the expertise of
Jean-Michel Wilmotte and his agency Wilmotte & Associés.

Value-in-kind sponsors : iGuzzini, a manufacturer of technical lighting apparatus,

provided its support for the lighting of the exhibition spaces. JEFCO, a French
manufacturer of professional paints involved in the preservation and renovation of
French cultural heritage sites, is a participant in the renovation of the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs through a sponsorship in top-quality paint.

We wish to thank Amorino, Campari, Ferrero, MEESOO and Yuta for their contributions to
the exhibition’s opening-day event.

The façade of the museum will be brought to life with a projection mapping project by
Athem, a MAD partner, on October 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st from 7:30pm.
With a rich tradition and history spanning
more than 280 years, Richard Ginori is the
epitome of Italian excellence in the artistic
manufacture of premium-quality porcelain
and is recognised worldwide. Part of the
Kering Group since 2013, Richard Ginori
has long been associated with key figures
in the fields of architecture, design and
fashion and has established itself as an
icon of ‘Made in Italy’ excellence.
To confirm the inseparable bond between
Richard Ginori and Gio Ponti, artistic
director of the Manufacture from 1923 to
1933, the maison has chosen to support
the project “Tutto Ponti, Gio Ponti Archi-
Designer”, the exhibition-tribute hosted at
the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
Over 30 works by Richard Ginori exhibited
among them: Vaso delle Donne e
delle Architetture, where the Pontiano
decoration style trace millennia of history
starting from the Greeks, Romans and
Egyptians, until reaching the Renaissance;
Vaso Prospettica, one of the most
famous works of the Master that reveals
his training as an architect; Mano della
Fattucchiera, a timeless design object;
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and Trionfo da tavola per le ambasciate
d’Italia, the centerpiece, an amazing
composition of objects in white porcelain
with details in pure gold, commissioned by
the Italian Foreign Ministry to the Richard
Ginori Manufacture in the second half
of the twenties to decorate - during gala
lunches - the tables of the most important
embassies, recently re-edited for the
first time by Richard Ginori, recovering
the original shapes and designs of the
Manufacture’s historical archive.
 78.

71.

75. 79.
68.

press kit
72.

69.
76. 80.

73.

70.

77.

74.
 82.

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81.

84.

83.

86.

85.
68. Bottle —
1946-1947
Produced by Venini, Murano
69. La mano della
fattucchiera (Witch’s Hand),
for Richard Ginori —
1935
porcelain, hand painted
decor highlighted with an
agate burnisher
Sesto Fiorentino, Museo
Richard Ginori della
Manifattura di Doccia,
Polo Museale della Toscana.
70. Scroll back chair —
1936
Produced by Casa e
Giardino
Walnut
75. Superleggera chair — 80. Mirror — 84. Lounge at Villa
1957 for Enrico e Gaetano Nemazee —
© Gio Ponti Archives, dal Monte 1964
Milan 1946, paper maché Tehran
Milan, private collection. © Gio Ponti Archives,
76. Bilia lamp — © Tom Mannion Milan
for Fontana Arte
1931 81. Living room, Villa 85. View of Villa Nemazee
metal, glass planchart, Caracas — from the swimming pool —
© Gio Ponti Archives, 1953-57 1964
Milan © Antoine Baralhé Tehran
Caracas, © Gio Ponti Archives,
77. Pieces for Lino Anala and Armando Milan
Sabattini — Planchart Foundation
1978 86. Transatlantic liner
Paris, Bregnano, collection 82.Outside dining room, Andrea Doria, main first
Lino Sabattini Villa planchart, Caracas — class lounge —
1953-57 Maurizio Eliseo archives,
78. Fato lamp — © Antoine Baralhé Trieste
1967 Caracas, Anala and © DR
produced by Artémide Armando Planchart

press kit
© Gio Ponti Archives, Milan metal Foundation
Berlin, Jochum Rodgers
71. Folding table Apta — collection 83. Lobby at Hotel Parco dei
1970, Formica, wood, brass © Gio Ponti Archives, Principi —
Milan, courtesy Ermes Ponti Milan in Sorrento
© Gio Ponti Archives, © Gio Ponti Archives,
Milan 79. Office, Villa Planchart — Milan
Caracas
72. Wall lamp model 575 — 1954
produced by Lumi Produced by Giordano
1960 Chiesa
brass and enamelled brass Walnut
Private collection © Antoine Barahlé
© Tom Mannion Caracas,
Anala and Armando
73. Triennale armchair Planchart Foundation
presented at the 9th
Triennale de Milan —
1951
wood, imitation leather
Courtesy Nilufar
Gallery
© Tom Mannion

74. Serving Spoon and fork

Pastille —
For Christofle
1953-1957
Silver metal
Christofle Heritage
© Vincent Thibert
Activities
for the public
–
The public services department offers the
following activities :

For children 4-6 and 7-10

Archidesign Workshop
This activity invites children to discover
the relationship between architecture
and design through form and surface
games based on the work of 20th-century
designers, and Gio Ponti in particular.

Price: 12 €
Information:
01 44 55 59 25 / jeune@madparis.fr
Reservations on the website / activities:

press kit
www.madparis.fr

For 18-25 year-olds

“Vivez Lézard” event

Tutto Ponti, Gio Ponti archi-designer

Thursday, November 8th, 6:30-8:30

Information:
01 44 55 59 26
Reservations on the website /
Vivez lézard:
www.weezevent.com
Useful information
−
— Press contacts — MAD — École Camondo
Isabelle Mendoza Pierre-Alexis Dumas, President René-Jacques Mayer, Director
Anne-Solène Delfolie Sylvie Corréard, General Director 266 Boulevard Raspail, 75014 Paris
+ 33 (0) 1 44 55 58 78 Pascale de Seze, +33 (0) 1 43 35 44 28
presse@madparis.fr Director of Communication
— Ateliers du Carrousel
— Chief curator — Musée des Arts Décoratifs Fulvia Di Pietrantonio, Director
Olivier Gabet, Director of the Olivier Gabet, Director of the 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
museum museum 266 boulevard Raspail, 75014 Paris
107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris 63 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris
— Curators +33 (0) 1 44 55 57 50 +33 (0) 1 44 55 59 02
Dominique Forest, Contemporary Métro : Palais-Royal, Pyramides,
& Modern department curator Tuileries — 107RIVOLI, boutique-bookshop
Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas, Open Tuesday to Sunday 11.00– 105 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Bouilhet-Dumas Studio 18.00 (Late opening Thursday +33 (0) 1 42 60 64 94
Salvatore Licitra, Gio Ponti Archives until 21.00: for exhibitions and the Open 11.00–18.30
Director Jewelry Gallery only) Late opening Thursday until 21.00
Assisted by Francesco Pastore → Full rate admission: 11 € Closed Monday
→ Reduced rate admission: 8,50 €
— Assistant curator — Restaurant Loulou
Chiara Spangaro, Independent — Musée Nissim de Camondo 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
curator, Art historian Olivier Gabet, Director of the or access via the Carrousel Gardens
museum Open daily 12.00–02.00
— Scenography 63 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris +33 (0) 1 42 60 41 96
Wilmotte & Associés +33 (0) 1 53 89 06 40
Open 10.00–17.30 — Restaurant Le Camondo
— Graphic design / Signage Closed Monday and Tuesday 61 bis rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris
Italo Lupi → Full rate admission: 9 € Open Tuesday to Saturday midday
→ Reduced rate admission: 6.50 € to midnight and Sunday during the
— Graphic design / Communication day+33 (0) 1 45 63 40 40
BETC — Library
107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris — Internet and social media
+33 (0) 1 44 55 59 36 madparis.fr
Open Tuesday to Friday 10.00– facebook.com/madparis
18.00 twitter.com/madparisfr
instagram.com/madparis
— Audience engagement,
mediation
and cultural development
The Educational and Cultural
Department organizes museum
tours for adults, groups and
individuals,
→ Reservations:
+33 (0) 1 44 55 59 26
thematic workshop-tours and
guided tours related to an exhibition
for 4 to 18 year-olds,
→ Reservations:
+33 (0) 1 44 55 59 25
and lectures and panel discussions
→ Reservations:
+33 (0) 1 44 55 59 75