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| Antiques |
Italian Renaissance
Marisa Bartolucci
07/01/2004
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It is Ponti’s single commission
and small-edition pieces from the postwar period that are currently garnering
the highest prices. “Anything that Ponti made for the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth
Milan Triennales [in 1947, 1950 and 1953] is prized,” says Peter Loughrey, the
director of Los Angeles Modern Auctions. “The pieces from those fairs
demonstrate Ponti at the peak of his creativity in the decorative arts.” Also
sought after from that era are the furnishings he designed with the eccentric
artist Piero Fornasetti. In addition to custom pieces for wealthy Milanese
clients, the two created surrealistic suites for the Andrea Doria, one of four
Italian ships whose interiors Ponti renovated. Among their most famous
collaborations are two flamboyant bedroom suites designed for the Ninth Milan
Triennale in 1950, encompassing a wardrobe and bed featuring a wing-like
headboard with built-in reading lamps and floating side cabinets decorated with
constructivist abstractions.
| “His work has such a playful spirit and always a graceful line. It’s
time people start paying attention to him again.” |
If these bed sets came to market, they would
fetch at least $200,000, says Loughrey. But Ponti fans can only dream. They are
currently part of the Swiss gallerist Bruno Bishofberger’s furniture collection.
Indeed, the design aristocracy has recently developed quite a crush on this
Italian master. “People in the visual arts immediately get his aesthetic,”
observes Loughrey. San Francisco art collector Michael Boyd owns several Ponti
pieces. Connie Caplan, named as one of the world’s top 200 art collectors in
2003 by Art News, is an avid Ponti buyer. New York contemporary art dealer Brent
Sikkema has dispensed with his collection of French modern furnishings in order
to assemble works by the Italians. Loughrey believes the avant garde-cum-kitsch
nature of much of Ponti’s work is what so appeals to the art crowd. Some of it
is simply out there, especially his work with Fornasetti.
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