"GIO PONTI E LA COMMITTENZA FERNANDES / AND THE FERNANDES COMMISSION" par Fabrizio MAUTONE. Editions Electa. 2009. Imprimé en Italie. Petit in-4 carré, couverture cartonnée illustrée en couleurs. 184 pages. Texte bilingue Italien / Anglais, traduction par Richard Sadleir, illustré de très nombreuses reproductions photographiques noir & blanc et couleurs, in-texte et hors texte, de travaux de Gio Ponti.

 

""Those fabulous fifties," as Gio Ponti called them, were a period of revival and optimism marked by an unprecedented consumer boom following the austerity of the postwar years. The energies devoted to improving living standards affected various sectors, such as social life, politics and the economy, leading to an "an unprecedented expansion in the period between the mid-fifties and mid-sixties". ln those years architecture and design fully benefited by the contribution from the new technologies, often developed by wartime research. They were placed at the disposal of industry, which was increasingly interested in serving the consumer. Plastic laminates, fiberglass and foam latex were presented not only as typical materials but true symbols of the period. ln some cases their structure favored the adoption of softer, lighter, more sculptural forms, very different from the hard-edged, volumetric forms of the previous decade. ln this period the fervent creativity of architects, artists and designers was rewarded by the frequent and rapid opportunities to produce models and conduct experiments, in short to be heard…"

 

Ref LAC0141