Experiments in domestic living and architectural spaces in which to live and work.
Gio Ponti’s residences
The exhibition presents a collection of furniture and a series of letters, family photographs, and videos that exemplify the modernity of Gio Ponti, a key figure of 20th century design. Architect and designer, founder of “Domus” and “Stile” magazines and of the Compasso d’Oro award, writer and lecturer at the Milan Politecnico, G. ponti was honored with the Médaille d’Or by the French Academy of Architecture. The exhibition is enriched with a section devoted to Ponti’s projects in the United States: Alitalia offices (New York, 1958), Time Life Building Auditorium (New York, 1959), Denver Art Museum, (Denver, 1971), MUSA, travelling exhibition of Italian furniture in the U.S.A. (1950-53), furniture for M. Singer&sons (1950s), furniture and walls organized for Altamira (1953).
The opening of the exhibition will feature an encounter with the Director of ICI, Riccardo Viale, with the curators of the exhibition, Francesca Molteni and Franco Raggi, deputy-president of the Milan Ordine degli Architetti, with Massimo Vignelli, designer and founder of Vignelli Associates, and with Marianne Lamonaca, curator and deputy director of the Bard Graduate Center.
On display a collection of furnishings designed by Gio Ponti between 1935 (chair for the first Montecatini Building) and the 1950s (bookcase, bureau, small table, picture frames and rug for Casa Ponti in via Dezza in Milan, 1956-57).