Taschen Books

To study Gio Ponti’s (1891 – 1979) prolific body of work is to appreciate the clear, unifying vision behind a complex creative universe. A synthesis of the arts, it expands like a crystal into intuitive facets with the Italian grandeur and studied lightness that defined his iconic style. Ponti’s rare capacity to move from micro to macro in a single flow of beauty allowed him to approach the design of a teaspoon with the same conviction as he did an entire city. The architect and the designer, the publisher and the poet, the artist and the man. The particular and the universal. A gem in its own regard, his contribution is a landmark of Italy’s mid-century Renaissance and the modernist values it sought to accomplish.

This new book is the most comprehensive account of his work to date, unprecedented in scale and scope. It tracks the development of Ponti’s oeuvre over 6 decades, 136 projects indexed and reproduced in high resolution in a compelling 36 x 36 cm format. It is an immersive experience of the atmosphere of space, each object framed by the context in which Ponti had created them. Like windows onto his illusive life, unpublished materials and candid imagery create new dialogues between his famous masterpieces - such as the Pirelli Tower or the Taranto Cathedral - and his work as editor of Domus and of countless objects, textiles and ceramics. A rich layer of texts, featuring a biographical essay, was produced in close collaboration with the Gio Ponti Archive offering an intimate insight on his life’s work. Materializing Ponti’s core philosophy of modernity, it presents architecture as a performing object, a « self-illuminating » stage for his humanistic art de vivre and boundless creativity.