
Dining table by Gio Ponti
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Dining table by Gio Ponti
About
About the Designer
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.
- Gio Ponti Style Oak Dining TableBy Gio PontiLocated in Antwerp, BEOak dining table with smoked glass top in the manner of Gio Ponti, Italy, 1970s.Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsSmoked Glass, Oak
- Gio Ponti Style Modern Italian Library or Dining TableBy Gio PontiLocated in Brooklyn, NYSharply tailored mahogany writing or dining table with single side drawer and sculpted legs ending in brass sabots. Measure: Drawer is 20.5" deep and 19.25" wide.Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Gio Ponti Dining Table in Veneered Walnut, Italy 1940sBy Gio PontiLocated in Hellouw, NLAmazing dining table by Gio Ponti from the early 1940s, Italy. It has a rectangular top in veneered Italian walnut with underneath four tapered fluted legs. A similar striking fluted...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsWood, Walnut
- D.859.1 table by Gio Ponti for MolteniBy Gio Ponti, Molteni & CLocated in Matosinhos, 13The D.859.1 table presents a simple yet refined design. Perfect as a dining or meeting table due to its dimensions. The legs are notable for their fine-membered modernity, creating a...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsAsh
- Gio Ponti Dining Table in Cherry Wood with Decorative MotifBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, ITExtraordinary dining table in cherry wood with decorative motif in the shape of a lens on the four bands and tips in burnished brass. Attributed to Gio Ponti by the Gio Ponti Archiv...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsWood, Fruitwood
- Extendable Italian Dining Table in the Style of Gio PontiBy Gio PontiLocated in Miami, FLA rare circular extending dining table in the style of well known Italian designer legend Gio Ponti. Measures 95" in length with three existing extensions, the mechanism allows for ...Category
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsBeech
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