Name: Rare and early chair from Conti Contini Bonaccossi, Florence
Brand: Gio Ponti

Italian Masterworks 13 December 2012

A Lyrical Line

A Chair for Count Contini Bonacossi

In 1931 Gio Ponti and Tomaso Buzzi were commissioned to decorate Count Contini Bonacossi’s home in Florence. Ponti drew inspiration from the count’s extraordinary collection of classical and modern art, which included masterpieces by Morandi, Carrà, Campigli, the Sironis, and De Chirico, to create modern forms with large personality. Buzzi, on the other hand, worked in an exaggerated classical style using elements from ancient Greece and Rome.

Combining Decò and “Novecento” styles, this chair was one of six examples designed by Ponti for the count’s home. Expertly crafted by the cabinetmaker Mario Quarti, the curved seatback flows seamlessly into the chair posts and the legs are gracefully contoured; these details would be lost in later production versions of the chair.

Ponti continually reinvented his forms, keeping them fresh and contemporary. In 1936, Casa e Giordana presented a variation with an adhered curved back at the VI Triennale. This expressive chair is the first version of a design whose variations would be produced for decades.

Variation of this chair produced by Cassina, 1949. Gio Ponti: L'Arte Si Innamora Dell'Industria, La Pietra

Gio Ponti 1891–1979

Gio Ponti excelled at painting as a child and expressed a fervent interest in the arts. Feeling that a career in architecture was preferable to that of a painter, Ponti’s parents encouraged him to pursue the former and in 1914 he enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. His studies were interrupted by war, and in 1915 he was forced to postpone his education. He served as a captain in the Pontonier Corps until 1919, earning multiple military honors. After graduating in 1921, Ponti married Giulia Vimercati, the daughter of local aristocracy and started an architecture firm. During this time, Ponti aligned himself with the neoclassical movement, Novecento and championed a revival of the arts and culture. In 1928, Ponti founded Domus, a periodical tailored to artists and designers, as well as the broader public. A shift occurred in the 1930s when Ponti took up a teaching post at his alma mater, the Politecnico di Milano. In search of new methods to express Italian modernity, Ponti distanced himself from the sentiments of Novecento and sought to reconcile art and industry. Together with the engineers, Eugenio Soncini and Antonio Fornaroli, Ponti enjoyed great success in the industrial sector, securing various commissions throughout Italy. In the 1950s, he gained international fame with the design of the Pirelli Tower in Milan and he was asked to be a part of the urban renewal of Baghdad, collaborating with top architects from around the world. His 1957 book, Amate l’architettura, is considered to be a microcosm of his work —an incredible legacy spanning art, architecture, industrial design, publishing and academia.

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Auction Results Gio Ponti