reduces artists and works of art to mere subjects of
historical circumstance. Pietro Chiesa's Cartoccio vase
with sandblast bubble decoration, c. 1940, was, when
first presented, acclaimed in New York as much as it
was in Fascist Italy. The sheer momentum of the desire
to embrace Modernist change after the dark years of
the Western Front served as a tsunami bringing sudden
transformation in the aesthetic, artistic and cultural world
regardless of what political regime would dominate.
The audacity of the artistic direction of Fontana Arte was
evident in the firm's intense beliefs about architecture
and the role of lighting in it: boundaries were crossed
with the flick of a switch. It is no coincidence that Ponti's
most famous book is called
Architecture is a Crystal, in which
he compares the art of building to
the structure of glass: "magical,
closed, exclusive, autonomous,
uncontaminated, uncorrupted,
absolute, definitive like crystal."
Glass was a vehicle for light and
for electricity, which fascinated
these three virtuosos. They
created works of art dedicated
to the gift of artificial light and its
transformative new architectural
presence within the built world
and in nature. In doing so, the
Pietro Chiesa, curious
table lamp, c. 1938
HYLAND
