To the great architect, artist and designer Gio Ponti (1891-1979), a promoter and popularizer of Italian “making,” is dedicated the upcoming exhibition at MIC Faenza, which opens to the public March 17 to remain on display until Oct. 13, 2024.
The exhibition entitled “Gio Ponti. Ceramics 1922-1967,” curated by Stefania Cretella, displays in fifteen sections more than two hundred works-including ceramics, glassware, furniture and drawings-through which Gio Ponti’s work from 1922 to 1978 is analyzed in relation to his vision of living and a new modern way of living.
“You learn things made with your hands. Nothing that is not first in the hands,” this emblematic quote of his encapsulates his thinking, which from the very beginning recovers the classical tradition (Etruscan and Roman) and the making of high artistic craftsmanship, adapting them to modern taste.
Ponti was a key figure in the definition of Italian style not only through his own design work, thanks in part to his dense network of relationships with artists, industrialists and artisans, but above all through his editorship of two magazines that have become historical in the field such as “Domus” and “Stile” and his constant participation in exhibitions and shows.
In fact, Ponti is the protagonist of the Monza Biennials, the Milan Triennials and international events such as the traveling exhibition “Italy at Work. Her Renaissance in Design Today” held in the United States between 1950 and 1953, aimed precisely at promoting overseas “Made in Italy” by presenting the highest representatives of Italian design and high artistic craftsmanship.
His relationship with ceramics begins as soon as he graduates. Between 1921 and 1922 Ponti arrived at Richard-Ginori and began the renewal of the manufacture’s historical repertoire, projecting it toward the emerging Art Deco taste. The exhibition focuses on the fundamental contribution made by the new artistic director over the course of about a decade, also offering comparisons with designers and artists active in the same years at other Italian manufactures, highlighting the effects that the Pontian model had on the contemporary context.
From the early 1930s Ponti enlisted the help of the young apprentice Giovanni Gariboldi, who became his trusted assistant and later his successor in the Richard-Ginori household. Having ended his relationship with the manufacture in 1933, Ponti occasionally returned to work with the company, proposing ideas of great creative flair, and over time began to forge relationships with the world of decorative arts and design. In more than fifty years of activity he has collaborated with Pietro Melandri and the Faenza context (famous are the cartepeste made with the Dalmonte family), with Ceramiche Pozzi, Gabbianelli, Venini, Fontana Arte and Sabattini, to name the main companies with which he promotes unique and extraordinarily current paths and projects.
Ponti’s stylistic signature is timeless, contemporary, and has stimulated dialogues with artists and designers of his era, but has also inspired 21st-century ceramists. In fact, the exhibition concludes with a section devoted to Ponti’s legacy and the influences it had on authors such as Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottsass, leading up to contemporaries POL Polloniato, Diego Cibelli, Bertozzi&Casoni, and Andrea Salvatori.
The rich catalog has the support of the Ponti Archive and critical contributions by the curator and Claudia Casali, Elena Dellapiana, Matteo Fochessati, Fulvio Irace, Salvatore Licitra, Fiorella Mattio, Oliva Rucellai, and Valerio Terraroli.
Documenting the rich and varied journey is the film “Amare Gio Ponti,” directed by Francesca Molteni, produced by Muse Factory of Projects in collaboration with Gio Ponti Archives, promoted by Molteni&C.
The exhibition benefits from the fundamental partnership of the Fondazione Museo Archivio Richard Ginori della Manifattura di Doccia in Sesto Fiorentino and the Archivio Gio Ponti.
With contributions from: General Directorate, Education, Research and Cultural Institutes, Emilia Romagna Region, Municipality of Faenza, Union of Faenza Romagna, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, Caviro, Romagna Acque, Hera, Tagina, Cerdomus, Sacmi, Tema Sinergie.
Media Partner: Pubblisole
Technical Partner: Villa Abbondanzi Resort
Data Sheet
Title: Gio Ponti. Ceramics 1922-1967 – More than two hundred works by the inventor of Made in Italy
Curation: Stefania Cretella
Where: MIC Faenza, viale Baccarini 19, Faenza (RA)
When: March 17-October 13, 2024
Open: until March 31 Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 2 pm, Saturday and Sunday and holidays 10 am to 6 pm. From April 1, Tuesday to Sunday and holidays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed on non-holiday Mondays, May 1, August 15.
Opening: March 16, 11 a.m. (by invitation)
Info: 0546697311, info@micfaenza.org, www.micfaenza.org
