GIO PONTI (Milan, 1891-1979) for Richard Gironi. Pair of plates. In porcelain. With signature of...

GIO PONTI (Milan, 1891-1979) for Richard Gironi. Pair of plates. In porcelain. With signature of the author and marks of the porcelain. Measurements: 1,5 x 23,5 (diameter) cm. Multidisciplinary creator, Gio Ponti is, along with Ettore Sottsass, the leader of the Italian designers of the twentieth century most sought after by collectors. His ability to give voice to new trends made him the "inventor" of the Made in Italy design concept. Ponti studied architecture at the Politecnico. After World War I, in which he had to serve, he worked as artistic director for the respected ceramic manufacturing company Richard-Ginori. Between 1923 and 1927 he partnered with architects Mino Fiocchi and Emilio Lancia, opening his own studio in 1928, and founded the famous design magazine Domus, through whose pages (and those of Lo Stile, a magazine he would found and edit in the 1940s) Ponti influenced international taste in design for more than fifty years. By 1933, Ponti partnered with engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini to create the Ponti-Fornaroli-Soncini studio, which firmly embraced the modernist aesthetic and worked until 1945. In 1950, Ponti was awarded the commission for what would become one of the iconic buildings of the 20th century, the 32-story Pirelli Tower in Milan.