Gio Ponti for Arredoluce, Italian Mid-Century Modern Brass Applique, 1957
About the Item
- Creator:Arredoluce (Manufacturer),Gio Ponti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 37.8 in (96 cm)Width: 14.18 in (36 cm)Depth: 7.09 in (18 cm)
- Power Source:Hardwired
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1957
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Milan, IT
- Reference Number:
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti (1891–1979) designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, lamps and chairs to ceramics and coffeemakers — and his buildings, including the brawny Pirelli Tower (1956) in his native Milan, and the castle-like Denver Art Museum (1971), were erected in 14 countries. Through Domus, the magazine he founded in 1928, Ponti brought attention to virtually every significant movement and creator in the spheres of modern art and design.
The questing intelligence Ponti brought to Domus 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 colorful; 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 Colombo and others.
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. (The name translates as “superlightweight” — advertisements featured a model lifting it with one finger.) Ponti had a playful side, best shown in a collaboration he began in the late 1940s with the graphic artist Piero Fornasetti. Ponti furnishings were decorated with bright finishes and Fornasetti's whimsical lithographic transfer prints of things such as butterflies, birds or flowers; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts possesses a 1950 secretary from their Architetturra series, which feature case pieces covered in images of building interiors and facades. The grandest project Ponti and Fornasetti undertook, however, lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean: the interiors of the luxury liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Widely praised retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001 and at the Design Museum London in 2002 sparked a renewed interest in Ponti among modern design aficionados. (Marco Romanelli’s monograph written for the London show, offers a fine overview of Ponti’s work.) Today, a wide array of Ponti’s designs are snapped up by savvy collectors who want to give their homes a touch of Italian panache and effortless chic.
Find a range of Gio Ponti furniture on 1stDibs.
Arredoluce
The lighting company Arredoluce opened in 1943, at the start of a golden era of modernist Italian design, and was born of the confluence of an eager entrepreneurial business spirit and a fresh, innovative, forward-looking creative atmosphere.
Angelo Lelii (1911–79), the founder of Arredoluce, which was based in the Milanese district of Monza, was a gifted and at times brilliant designer. He had the insight to commission works from other greats of the day, including Gio Ponti, Vico Magistretti, the brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni and Ettore Sottsass Jr.
Lelii’s designs cover a broad aesthetic range. His most famous work, the Triennale floor lamp (circa 1947), is both elegant and practical, with three omnidirectional lighting booms attached to a central pole. His well-known ceiling light of 1954 — in which a conical canister bounces light upward off a lighting-arced enameled-aluminum sheet — is a piece of design poetry. And his 1962 Cobra table lamp has a wild, almost surreal look, featuring a sculptured rod of polished metal with a socket that, like his Eye floor lamp of the early 1960s, holds an eyeball-like directional bulb.
Arredoluce also placed few constraints on the creativity of the designers it employed from outside the company. The Castiglioni brothers’ Turbino table lamp of 1951, for example, is a remarkably early example of minimalist design. The company both fostered the tradition-minded aspect of Gio Ponti’s sensibility and produced several of his experimental pieces in Lucite in the 1950s; and Sottsass’s UFO table lamp of 1957, a sandwich of two plastic bubbled tablets on four legs, prefigures the look of his postmodern works for the Memphis Group by more than 20 years. From the stylish and utilitarian to the avant-garde, lighting by Arredoluce includes some of the most diverse, remarkable — and collectible — designs of the late 20th century.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Calvenzano, Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Stilnovo, Italian Mid-Century Modern, Brass Applique "Model 1036", 1950By StilnovoLocated in Milan, ITOriginal Stilnovo Applique, model 1036 created around the 1950s in Italy. The central fixture holds up 7 arms in tubular metal in black enamel, keeping in place at their ends polish...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- French Mid-Century Modern, Pair of Red Metal Appliques by Mathieu Matégot, 1950sBy Mathieu MatégotLocated in Milan, ITPair of perforated red metal appliques by Mathieu Matégot, 1950s. Two perforated red metal sheet elements are held in vertical position by a geometric white structure lacquered st...Category
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsSheet Metal
- Stilnovo Attributed, Italian Mid-Century White Yellow Geometric Sconce, 1958By StilnovoLocated in Milan, ITGeometric sheet metal Stilnovo Attributed applique with oval yellow diffuser, 1958. The white sheet metal structure carries the wall-hanging apparatus, using which the applique is...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass, Sheet Metal
- Gio Ponti and Gastone Rinaldi for RIMA, Set of 2 Wooden Model DU10 Chairs, 1951By Gastone Rinaldi, RIMA, Gio PontiLocated in Milan, ITGio Ponti and Gastone Rinaldi for RIMA, Set of 2 Model DU10 chairs, 1951 A Black lacquered tubular metal structure geometrically holds two molded plywood elements in this stately ra...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Gastone Rinaldi for Rima, Italian Mid-Century "Saturno" Sofa in Pink Velvet 1957By RIMA, Gastone RinaldiLocated in Milan, ITThis sofa designed by Gastone Rinaldi in 1957 for the company Rima from Padova, Italy exhibits a purity of craftsmanship thanks to its simple yet sophisticated crossbow- shaped metal frame, considered a breakthrough at the time for the avant-garde form. Upholstered in an elegant tone of pink velvet, the structure has been very well-maintained, and the sofa is ready to be shipped worldwide. His 1957 “Saturno” is included in the famous modern and contemporary art collection at New York’s MoMA. A must have piece for the most valued Italian Design's collector. Gastone Rinaldi (1920-2006) was an architect and designer from Padua, Italy, specialized in furniture. He designed a number of metal chairs for Rima, the company his father had established in 1916. One of the models, the DU30, earned him the 1954 Compasso d’Oro. After leaving the family business, he started his own company in 1974 – Thema – for which he created high-tech style items such as the “Dafne” foldable chair...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsSteel
- Set of Two Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps, circa 1950By ArredoluceLocated in Milan, ITSet of Two Italian Mid-Century Modern floor lamps with adjustable height, circa 1950.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsTravertine, Chrome
- Gio Ponti Model 12664 Wall Light Arredoluce 1957 with certificateBy Gio Ponti, ArredoluceLocated in Munich, DEGio Ponti designed these gorgous and very rare wall lights in 1957 and they were manufactured by Arredoluce. The model name is 12664 and similar lamps are part of the interior of th...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- 'Sole' Flush Mounts by Gio Ponti for ArredoluceBy Arredoluce, Gio PontiLocated in Los Angeles, CAMod. Sole Flush Mounts by Gio Ponti for Arredoluce. Designed and manufactured in Italy, in 1957. Minimal impressionistic sun flush mounts, composed of ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Angelo Lelli Mid-Century Modern Italian Brass Wall Lamp for Arredoluce, 1950sBy Angelo Lelii, ArredoluceLocated in Puglia, PugliaAngelo Lelli wall lamp for Arredoluce. Designed and produced in Italy, circa 1950s. Brass. We can insert reducers for USA bulbs, current E14 lamps.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- Gio Ponti Style Applique with Three-Lights Golden Brass, Italy, 1950sBy Gio PontiLocated in Roma, ITGio Ponti style, appliqué with three-lights, golden brass, Italy, 1950s Use E14 bulbs.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- Mid-Century Modern Italian "Star" Sconces, ITSO Gio Ponti, circa 1950By Gio Ponti, Fontana ArteLocated in Merida, YucatanMid-Century Modern 5-light sconces in the style of Gio Ponti for Fontana Arte. Manufactured in brass and cut clear and light blue glass. These are made in cut crystal and brass. Th...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsGlass
- Gio Ponti, Wall Light, from the Villa Goldschmidt, Buenos Aires, circa 1957By Gio Ponti, ArredoluceLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireThis very rare wall light was designed by Gio Ponti circa 1957, produced by Arredoluce, Monza and hung in the Villa Goldschmidt, Buenos Aires, Argentina. An identical example is to ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Barnaba Fornasetti’s Hallucinatory House Has His Father’s Spirit
Behind a nondescript facade in northeastern Milan is the magical residence of Barnaba Fornasetti. It's a shrine to the style developed by his design-legend father, which still defies categorization.
Billy Cotton Layers His Interiors with Lived-In Comfort
The Brooklyn-based designer is adept at styles ranging from austere to over-the-top, espousing an architectural, detail-oriented approach also evident in his line of furniture and lighting.