The MAXXI launches show that puts Gio Ponti's architectu
‘Gio Ponti: Loving Architecture', the new exhibition on the iconic Italian architect's work, has just opened at the Zaha Hadid-designed MAXXI Museum in Rome and takes the visitor on a jounrey across Ponti's career with a firm focus on his buildings
Last year Paris: this year Rome. Forty years after the death of Gio Ponti, the great Italian architect, designer and publisher receives his second major retrospective in under 12 months – this time at MAXXI, the Italian capital’s Zaha Hadid-designed National Museum of 21st-Century Arts.
While the Paris show, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, made a heroic attempt to encompass the full range of Ponti’s life and work, the new exhibition at MAXXI (which opened this week and runs till 13 April 2020) focuses squarely on his architecture, with occasional asides examining his industrial and household designs and the influence of his role as the founding editor of Domus and Stile magazines.
Curated by Mariastella Casciato and Fulvio Irace, ‘Gio Ponti: Loving Architecture' takes over the museum’s soaring fifth-floor gallery, and overcomes the challenge of its sloping floor with ease – a testament both to MAXXI’s installation team and the instantly engaging quality of the many models, drawings and plans on show.
The exhibition is divided into eight sections, examining Ponti’s approach to houses, nature, classicism, facades, lightness, skyscrapers, urban planning and ‘architecture as crystal’, derived from his gnomic claim that ‘when architecture is pure, it is pure as a crystal – magic, closed, exclusive, autonomous, uncontaminated, uncorrupted, absolute, definitive like a crystal.’
Rome may seem an odd place to stage an exhibition about Ponti, who spent most of his life living and working in Milan, but as Casciato points out, ‘he was an architect of national and international renown when that was still a rarity, and he knew everyone and travelled everywhere, when that was far more difficult than it is today.’
With an essay-filled catalogue and a series of newly commissioned photo essays featuring some of Ponti’s finest buildings, including Taranto Cathedral and the Villa Planchart in Caracas, this is a full-service show – as well as being an excellent excuse to visit Rome, if any excuse were needed.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Gio Ponti: Loving Architecture runs at the MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome until 13 April 2020
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
London bar Bauhaus Warehaus is a factory by day, drinking den by night
Mixologist of the moment Remy Savage shakes up the world of cocktail-making with a hardworking sibling to A Bar with Shapes for a Name, his Bauhaus-inspired bar enterprise in east London
By Neil Ridley Published
-
Copper piping turns contemporary lighting: the twist in JamesPlumb’s designs at Gallery Fumi
Design studio JamesPlumb presents sculptural copper chandeliers and floor lights in its solo exhibition 'Rooted' at Gallery Fumi (until 25 January 2025)
By Ali Morris Published
-
Circling back: Lars Tunbjörk's uncanny office photography is revisited in a new book
First published in 2001 and long since sold out, 'Office' is revisited this month by the publisher Loose Joints, released with a second volume shot in Los Angeles, the previously unpublished LA Office
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
V&A's Tropical Modernism: a vivid look at architecture culture in newly independent Ghana
Subtitled ‘Architecture and Power in West Africa’, V&A's 'Tropical Modernism' is a richly historical show at the 2023 Venice Biennale, perfectly aligned with the overarching theme of inclusion and exploration of modernism’s overlooked cultural impact
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Venice Architecture Biennale 2023: the ultimate guide
As the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 opens, we explore the offerings at the world’s famous celebration of building design
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Lesley Lokko announced as curator of 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale
Academic, educator and novelist Lesley Lokko will be the director of the architecture sector for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
What to see around Venice during the Architecture Biennale
The curated show by Hashim Sarkis and the National Pavilions at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale are complemented by more events across town. Here, we pick three installations, which celebrate community and sustainability
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Tour the 2021 National Pavilions at Venice Architecture Biennale
Stuck at home? We got you. Our virtual tour of the 2021 National Pavilions at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale will help transport you to the avant-garde of contemporary architecture from across the globe
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Venice Architecture Biennale 2021: a year late but somehow right on time
Hashim Sarkis' main show ‘How Will We Live Together?' at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale opens a year later than originally expected, but ponders on questions that are more timely than ever
By Amah-Rose Abrams Last updated
-
Stefano Boeri will curate Salone del Mobile 2021
Italian architect Stefano Boeri has been announced as the curator of the 2021 edition of Salone del Mobile (September 5-10 2021)
By Rosa Bertoli Last updated
-
A walking tour of Venice through art and design
Ahead of the Venice Architecture Biennale (which starts on 22 May 2021), discover Venice by walking through its best art and design locations, with a specially-curated tour led by local creative entrepreneurs
By Maria Cristina Didero Last updated