FONTANA ARTE

Luigi Fontana founder of the Company

In 1881 Luigi Fontana starts his business in Milan, manufacturing float glass for the construction industry. As the century draws to a close, the company is producing refined bespoke and one-off glass furnishing accessories.

n 1906 the company exhibited at the International Fair of Milan, with a pharaonic pavilion, visited by personalities such as Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena. The event was reported by the press at the time. Attentive to new trends in architecture and decoration, following the dictates of the prevailing Liberty style, Fontana produced polychrome stained glass windows, advertising signs, enamelled glass, ground and decorated mirrors besides pieces of furniture with glass parts and splendid shop windows with large curved glass, of great impact on the public.

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Gio Ponti starts as Luigi Fontana’s art director

Gio Ponti, former founding editor of Domus magazine, is invited to take over the company’s art direction in 1931. An eclectic character who is a key player in the cultural ferment of that period, Ponti is also one of the founders of ADI (the Italian Industrial Design Association). He curates the Milan Triennale events on various occasions, lectures at the Milan Polytechnic, and designs both public and private buildings, furnishings and objects that become part of the history of architecture and design. Among the numerous projects that he designed for FontanaArte, the iconic 0024, Bilia, Pirellina, and Pirellone lamps, and the Tavolino 1932 coffee table are still in the collection.

Pietro Chiesa, new Art Director

In 1933 a department specializing in modern furnishings was created, under the name of FontanaArte. Its direction was initially entrusted to Ponti and soon afterwards, at Ponti’s suggestion, passed to Pietro Chiesa, who led it to the top of international success, until his premature death in 1948. The most varied articles were created: furniture, plates, boxes, portrait holders, frames, mirrors, sculptures, stained-glass windows, often designed by the most famous artists. But it was above all in the lighting that FontanaArte proved to be extraordinarily avant-garde, with models of pure rationalism, masterfully executed making the most of all the crystal manifacturings that were most congenial to it.

Ponti and Chiesa designs for FontanaArte steal the show at the Triennale

FontanaArte’s first Triennale showcased a series of Ponti and Chiesa designs, and it was the latter who really challenged traditional visual benchmarks, producing a series of modular table lamps whose opal glass tubes were interwoven with a metal structure. Milan was on the fast track to becoming a design capital and the city’s ties with FontanaArte thrived as the company stepped into the shoes of ambassador for inspired innovation.

1979: new art director Gae Aulenti develops product and communication synergies

Carlo Guglielmi comes to FontanaArte at the same time that Gae Aulenti becomes its art director. Architect Aulenti, who had already worked with the company in the past, is another leading light in the corporate renewal process. Her first move is to makeover the collection, personally designing lamps and furnishing accessories that are still in the catalogue. At the same time she recruits a team of young contributors, validating the corporate mission to scout talent and acknowledging the importance of various strategic communication levers. She is flanked by Piero Castiglioni in product development, by Pierluigi Cerri for graphics, and Daniela Puppa and Franco Raggi for event and exhibition management.

Max Ingrand, a new art director leads FontanaArte into the industrial age

In the mid-Fifties, a French master glazier and decorator, renowned for his stunning stained-glass church windows is invited to the art direction team at FontanaArte. There is an enormous upheaval in the interiors market of the day, riding the wave of the economic boom and capturing increasing numbers of customers from various sectors of society. Manufacture of limited series and one-offs shifts to mass production, from artisanal systems to prevalently industrial processes. Max Ingrand is the front line at FontanaArte, guiding this evolution and taking the company towards more intensely industrial production but always keeping the craftsmen in his sights.

Max Ingrand designs the company’s iconic table lamp, also named Fontana, and still a winner today

In his design role, Max Ingrand puts his name to a number of true classics, like the Fontana table lamp, still a top seller for its namesake. The exquisite rounded lamp base, in white blown glass, tapers gently upwards to fit a truncated cone shade. This is the classic lamp and shade design, the quintessential table lamp that wrote a page of lighting history. If Fontana is a unique device, it is thanks to the multiple lighting options it offers. The base and the shade can house multiple light sources, while the largest version also provides indirect lighting, with a further source positioned above the shade to direct an upward beam. Split controls meet different lighting needs from the soft glow of a nightlight to strong reading light, and even mood lighting from the indirect emission. Fontana’s white silhouette is sketched with surface frosting for a hint of enduring style.