Gio Ponti

The design work Gio Ponti brought to Domus Nova is reflected in his work, as protean as he was prolific, Ponti’s style can’t be pegged to a specific genre.

In the 1920s, as artistic director for the Tuscan porcelain maker Richard Ginori, he fused old and new, his ceramic forms were modern, but decorated with motifs from Roman antiquity. In pre-war Italy, modernist design was encouraged, and after the conflict, Ponti along with designers such as Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso found a receptive audience for their novel, idiosyncratic work. Ponti’s typical furniture forms from the period, such as the wedge-shaped “Distex” chair, are simple, gently angular, and colourful; equally elegant and functional.

In the 1960s and ’70s, Ponti’s style evolved again as he explored biomorphic shapes, and embraced the expressive, experimental designs of Ettore Sottsass Jr., Joe Columbo and others. a diamond sofa from his home was recently valued at 60 - 80,000 us dollars at Southbys His signature furniture piece, the one by which he is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Germany’s Vitra Design Museum and elsewhere is the sleek “Superleggera” chair, produced by Cassina starting in 1957.