Gio Ponti and Richard Ginori: match ineditaSCENARIO

Do Inaugurata Marino Marini Museum exhibition Gio Ponti and Richard Ginori: an unpublished correspondence, edited by Livia Frescobaldi Malenchini, Oliva Rucellai and Alberto Salvadori. The sample, sponsored by the Friends of Shower, in collaboration with the Museo Richard Ginori Shower, is made possible by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, with a contribution of Richard Ginori 1735, acquired last year by GUCCI and that in the month of June, will reopen his shop in Florence's historic Via Rondinelli.
Gio Ponti and Richard Ginori: an unpublished correspondence presents a choice selection of some fifty pieces, among the least known, from the rich collection of ceramics from the Museum of Gio Ponti Shower, and a selection of thirty letters of the architect / designer, for the most part unpublished, from the archives of the Manufacture Shower, with sketches, manufacturing drawings and directions. The letters represent a new starting point to investigate the working method of Gio Ponti and his relationship with Richard Ginori, marked by a constant search for innovative ideas and products, and at the same time offer an opportunity to reflect on the creative Italian, of which he was one of the greatest representatives at the international level. The works presented, instead, highlight the close link between the idea and the product itself, alongside the original drawing or sketch of the object and then actually realized in Shower. Many of the ceramics on display have not entered into serial production, some are unique pieces of the precious collection of the Museo Richard Ginori. An exhibition deliberately small, but with specific sections of well-defined: from idea to product, the special commissions, communication, the role of exhibitions.
After the First World War, Richard Ginori, with its five factories had become one of the leading ceramic manufacturers in Europe, experienced one of its most glorious age. The main merit was the young architect Gio Ponti (1891-1979), that he began to cooperate with the company in 1922 and became its artistic director for a decade, from 1923 to the 1933. His talent imaginative, His passion for the industry and, at the same time, for the craft more refined, his ability to lead the taste of his contemporaries, interpreting irony with expectations, made it the ideal renovator of art pottery Richard Ginori. The public and the critics acclaimed both in Italy and abroad and in 1925, International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, received the Grand Jury Prize.
The correspondence between Gio Ponti, who worked in Milan, and the Manufacture of Bathroom includes 230 letters, for a total of 426 map. Although not complete, together with the drawings, catalogs, the vintage photos and other documents, kept in the Museo Richard Ginori, this correspondence is an incomparable testimony to the study of the production of Shower Ponty and, more generally, to the knowledge of the artist. In addition to providing useful data to establish the chronology and in some cases even the attribution of ceramics, the autograph letters offer a point of view closer to the work of the Milanese architect and on his way to work in the industrial and manufacturing sectors of society Ceramics Richard Ginori.
Leafing through these passionate letters, clearly the role of real industrial designer, comparable only to the work done in Germany by Peter Behrens for AEG (Electricity company of Berlin). Gio Ponti is responsible in the first person of every aspect of production, the transition from the first idea, often presented in the form of sketch, to its development, determined from time to time by the concurrence of different factors. Produces new colors such as blue Bridges, two-tone, creates packaging and labels for prices, invents identification marks and emblems of the objects produced and the entire manufacturing, designing the pavilions for exhibitions, discusses the figures with which items are to be offered for sale, assessing the marketability.
Bridges is among the first to take an interest and the appearance promotional communications, taking care of the graphic and photographic presentation of the product, relations with the press, thanks to the magazine Home he founded in 1928, relationships with influential critics - Margherita Sarfatti, Ugo Ojetti, Roberto Papini - and with the most prestigious clients.
Many of these letters are addressed to Louis Tazzini, suo "braccio handed" the Doccia, artistic director of the Tuscan manufacture. Testify to the relationship of trust between the two extreme, a relationship not only professional but also of friendship and respect. Tazzini proves to possess the qualities of extreme patience, having to do with a strong character and susceptible as that of fellow Milanese. We read also of how other artists are involved in many projects Bridges: sculptors Libero Andreotti and Italo Griselli, the architect Giovanni Muzio, decorator Elena Diana and Victor Beech and others.
In ceramics designed by Gio Ponti for Doccia are always present two fundamental, tradition and innovation, a combination that in the ten years of continuous work and tireless, have made this partnership an extraordinary and unrepeatable, not only for the wonderful objects made but also because it is the first case of Italian artistic production of industrial.
Among the exhibits, testimony of the special commissions received from Bridges, stand out in a big pot potiche blue tiled with ormolu, requested of the Cassa di Risparmio delle Province of Lombardy, and part of a major triumph table commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Italian Embassies around the world.
In Favor Homage to the snob, instead, Bridges ironic message to the world cultural elite, two figures dressed in traditional folk dance, alongside the innovative and creative imagination of the artist, classicism that pervades instead of his other works.
The idea of the exhibition is the result of the last project of the Friends of Bath who sees the publication of the full volume of works by Gio Ponti at the Museum of Bath, about 560 pieces, in press, the result of the valuable work done by Maria Teresa Giovannini, started in 2007, counting of letters, photo albums and records of the samples kept in the Manufacture of Shower.
In conjunction with the exhibition will be held Letters to Bridges, a competition of ideas for the development of design concepts inspired by the work of Gio Ponti, with particular reference to letters written in the years 1923 to the 1930, for students of Florence's Department of Architecture Faculty of Design Calenzano, the LABA Libera Accademia, Artistic ISIA Industrial Institute, Academy of Fine Arts, sponsored by Richard Ginori Museum, Association of Friends of Shower. The event is organized in collaboration with the Association Observatory for arts and crafts, with Gio Ponti Archives and the Association exercises and traditional historians typical Florentine.
The initiative started with Stefano Follesa, lecturer at the Design Campus Calenzano, invites students to express in the form of "letters", characterized by a unified graphical format A3, their own personal interpretation of the work Ponty under the aspect of projects of objects, graphic works, decorations, equipment, small architectures. In every university there was a lesson to present both the initiative, Ponti's work is the same as the premise that all students will then work individually, as well as a guided tour of the room Bridges Museum of Bath.
A jury composed of professors and experts, will select the top twenty works, thanks to a collaboration with the Association exercises historic traditional and typical of Florence, fill the shop windows in the city center, during the exhibition period.
Among these winds will be awarded: a first prize, scholarship equal to 2000 euro, as a contribution to the attendance of a master's in Italy or abroad; a second prize, scholarship equal to 700 euro, as a contribution to the attendance of a course of training or study in Italy; a third prize, a reissue of a porcelain Gio Ponti, created by Richard Ginori; from the fourth to twentieth prize, a copy of the complete catalog of the works of Gio Ponti at the Museum of Bath.
The selected projects will also be available online on the websites of the organizers.