Fontana Arte. Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, Max Ingrand

Available exclusively through Bernd Goeckler Antiques starting March 7th 2013. Fontana Arte is unique on the 20th century applied arts scene not only in Italy but throughout the world. In just over thirty years it became the most outstanding company specialized in the use of glass in lighting and furnishings, remarkable for its modern design and perfect craftsmanship. This great success was owed to the three artistic directors who in turn guided the company: Gio Ponti, memorable for being the first to have intuited the immense potential of glass applied to new lighting systems and furnishings, and especially for discovering Pietro Chiesa's creative genius and wanting him by his side in the Fontana Arte management. Pietro Chiesa, the true instigator of the worldwide success, a man of exceptional artistic culture, able to move between the most avant-garde modernism and the purest, most refined decoration, and creator of an exceptional staff of craftsmen under the banner of Fontana Arte, capable of creating utterly modern products with standards of executive perfection worthy of the highest Renaissance tradition. Max Ingrand, who joined Fontana Arte at a particularly critical time, after Chiesa's death and the wartime damage, and brought it back to life, updating its productions and leading it into the design world as we conceive it today without betraying the legacy of all those who preceded him