The work of Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti is the focus of a major exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Curator Salvatore Licitra, who is also Ponti's nephew, picks out five of the most important designs in the show.
On show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs until 5 May 2019, Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti Archi-Designer explores the full scope of Ponti's six decade-long career as a designer and architect, from 1921 to 1978.
Ponti designed both buildings and furniture as well as producing interiors, tile and textiles, and his ideas and methods crossed back and forth between the disciplines. And despite working at a time of increasing mass production, he was just as interested in craft.
"A way of looking at the present" With the exhibition, Salvatore Licitra wanted to address how Gio Ponti "a man born in the 19th century and who passed away 4o years ago, continues to be and has increasingly become, a reference for architects, designers and artists around the world".
"This is not a case of presenting an account of 'Italian arts' and of a figure from a bygone age, but rather a way of looking at the present, and at the sources to which important contemporary expressions of creativity refer and look for inspiration," he said.
Here, Licitra picks five of Ponti's most influential furniture designs and explains how they embody his design principles:

811 armchair
"The 811 armchair effectively represents the switch from a...