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Mid-Century Modern Round Fontana Arte Mirror by Max Ingrand, Italy, 1960s

About the Item

Mid-Century Modern Round Fontana Arte mirror by Max Ingrand, Italy, 1960s Designer Biography : "Max Ingrand was born in 1908 in Bressuire, France. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris where he specialized in decorative art. In 1931 Ingrand established his own workshop, where he experimented transparency, and light, notably with stained glass. Mad Ingrand was educated in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where he studied interior design and specialized in decorative arts graduating in 1927. While at school, he apprenticed to renowned stained glass artist Jacques Grüber, known for his Art Nouveau stained glass windows, and architect Charles Lemarequier. In 1931, Max Ingrand left the workshop of Jacques Gruber to create his own company, and married glass artist Paulette Rouquié. That same year, the young couple worked together creating several glass embossing designs and exhibited the works at the XXII Société des artistes décorateurs. This exhibition and early glass works, led Max Ingrand to receive several private stained-glass commissions. One of the most important assignments of this time was his design and creation of the stained glass windows at the Sainte Agnès church, in Maisons-Alfort, where he further developed his skills as a master glassmaker not shy of utilizing bold luminous colors. During this time, Ingrand also worked on private commissions designing stain glass windows and glass etching. By 1936, Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti, who three years earlier founded the Italian furniture and light making company Fontana Arte along Luigi Fontana and Pietro Chiesa, had already noticed the talent and skill of Max Ingrand, and published in Domus design and architecture magazine some of Ingrand’s works and writing “Max Ingrand, through constant research in the technique of acid and sand processing, surface and depth, achieved a truly masterly craftsmanship refinement. We show his works here as useful examples of decoration, ornament and design which to the perfection and precision of the crafting sometimes add a lyrical inspiration.” Ponti’s recognition of Ingrand’s glass artistic talent would positively affect Ingrand’s career later in life, when he would become the artistic director of Fontana Arte. In 1937, he worked on important window designs for Notre-Dame de Paris, and later the Saint-Pierre d’Yvetot Church in Normandy, which would become one of largest stained glass windows in Europe, and was invited by architect Louis Süe to decorate the apartment of cosmetics businesswoman Helena Rubinstein." Maker biography : "Gio Ponti decides it’s time to give a boost to Luigi Fontana’s line of prestigious furnishing accessories and invites Pietro Chiesa to join him in the art direction. Chiesa is a distinguished master glazier who enlists the craftsmen from his own workshop to join him. It is a short leap to the launch of FontanaArte, a new division with a mission to develop products with a more artisanal feel, ranging from stained glass to limited series of furnishing and lighting accessories. As the years roll by, Pietro Chiesa plays a key role in the company as his creative verve offers ample proof that he is a versatile master of vast cultural and technical expertise. He designs over a thousand different pieces, some of which make design history and which remain in production today, including the 1932 curved-glass Fontana table, Cartoccio vase, and the 1933 Luminator floor lamp."

Creator:

Fontana Arte (Maker),Max Ingrand (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 2.76 in (7 cm)Diameter: 27.96 in (71 cm)

Style:

Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Glass

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1960-1969

Date of Manufacture:

1960s

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Brussels, BE

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU2265330229652

View Invoice

Shop All Fontana Arte

Fontana Arte

Best known for its elegant and innovative vintage lighting fixtures, the Milan-based firm Fontana Arte pioneered one of the key features of 20th-century and contemporary Italian design: the union of artistry and industry wrought by partnerships between creative talents — chiefly architects — and entrepreneurial businesses. Fontana Arte is further distinguished by having had as artistic director, in succession, four of Italy’s most inventive modernist designers: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, French transplant Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti.

The bread and butter of the glassmaking company that Luigi Fontana founded in 1881 was plate-glass panels for the construction industry. In 1930, Fontana met Ponti — then the artistic director of the Richard Ginori ceramics workshop and the editor of the influential magazine Domus — at a biannual design exhibition that became the precursor to today’s Milan Design Triennale, and the two hatched an idea for a furniture and housewares firm. Fontana Arte was incorporated in 1932 with Ponti as its chief of design. He contributed several lamps that remain among the company’s signature works, including the orb-atop-cone Bilia table lamp and the 0024 pendant — a stratified hanging sphere.

The following year, Fontana Arte partnered with the influential Milan studio glassmaker and retailer Pietro Chiesa, who took over as artistic director. Chiesa’s designs for lighting — as well as for tables and items including vases and ashtrays — express an appreciation for fluidity and simplicity of line, as seen in works such as his flute-shaped Luminator floor lamp and the 1932 Fontana table — an arched sheet of glass that is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Six years after Chiesa’s 1948 death, the École des Beaux Arts–trained Max Ingrand took over as head of design at Fontana Arte. Ingrand brought a similarly expressive formal sensibility to wares such as lamps and mirrors, but he also had a masterful eye for the manipulation of glass surfaces — whether they be cut, frosted, acid-etched or sand-blasted. His classic design is the Fontana table lamp of 1954, which has a truncated cone shade and curved body, both of which are made of pure, chic white-frosted glass.

Following Ingrand, the often-audacious Italian architect Gae Aulenti served as the company’s artistic director from 1979 to 1996, and while she generally insisted that furnishings take second place aesthetically to architecture, she made an exception for Fontana Arte pieces such as the Tavolo con Ruote series of glass coffee and dining tables on wheels, bold lighting pieces such as the Parola series and the Giova, a combination flower vase and table lamp. As a key incubator of modern design under Aulenti’s tenure, Fontana Arte remained true to its long-held commitment — creating objects that have never been less than daring.

Find vintage Fontana Arte lighting fixtures such as pendants, table lamps and more on 1stDibs.