Tiled Console Table
Design Date 1941
Designer Gio Ponti (1891–1979, Italian) & Paolo de Poli (1905–1996, Italian)
Media walnut wood with enameled copper tiles
Dimensions 32 x 37 x 17 inches
This tiled table was a collaboration between Gio Ponti and the celebrated enamel artist Paolo de Poli. Collaboration between Ponti and de Poli first began when the pair designed enamel panels for the rectorate of the University of Padua in 1940. Ponti designed this table and tiles in collaboration with de Poli in 1941 along with tables of a similar variety. Although the design of the table dates to 1941, it was not manufactured until 1953 as a tile on this particular table is signed by de Poli with that year. The table’s long tapered legs are typical of Ponti’s design aesthetic, which is streamlined and narrow, and his furniture overwhelmingly bears these pointy, angular legs. He was inspired by the tapered shape of the obelisk, whose “lines do not settle, sleep, or rest” but “are statically in motion”. In addition to the series of enameled copper-tiled furniture that Ponti designed with de Poli, Ponti’s architecture often incorporated tiles because of his interest in their texture and surface. Examples of his tiled buildings include the Church of San Francesco in Milan, Italy (1964) and the North Building of the Denver Art Museum (1971). He liked the shiny glazed surfaces of tiles, which he called “traps to capture the light”.
ON VIEW in Modern Gallery 7
Markings Signed "PAOLO DE POLI / 1953 MADE IN ITALY" in gold, top lower right corner tile
Accession Number 2004.1118
