"Architettura"

Designer Gio Ponti Italian

designed 1951; manufactured 1975

Not on view

Although historical precedent provides the formal and decorative inspiration for this drop-front writing cabinet (sixteenth-century Italian Mannerist architectural compositions and furniture in particular), there is a surreal quality to Fornasetti's witty and inventive architectural fantasy, which plays games with perspective and preconceptions of interior and exterior space. The desk represents a collaboration between the architect Ponti, who designed the pared-down yet still traditional form, and the designer Fornasetti—a former student of Ponti—who was responsible for the exuberant, pseudo-illusionist decoration.

Artwork Details

Title: "Architettura"
Designer: Piero Fornasetti (Italian, 1913–1988)
Designer: Gio Ponti (Italian, Milan 1891–1979 Milan)
Date: designed 1951; manufactured 1975
Medium: Screen-printed wood fiberboard, mahogany, brass, wire, electric light
Dimensions: 87 1/4 × 31 1/2 × 16 1/8 in., 138 lb. (221.6 × 80 × 41 cm, 62.6 kg)
Classification: Furniture
Credit Line: John C. Waddell Collection, Gift of John C. Waddell, 1997
Object Number: 1997.460.2ab
Rights and Reproduction: Courtesy Fornasetti
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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Sliding box, Piero Fornasetti Italian, Metal and wood — Sliding box
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