Two titles – ‘Italian Design: Another Look’ and ‘Jsa: Art Fabrics, a Private Collection’ – for two unmissable auctions. The date is 9 November 2021 in the prestigious spaces of rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris at 4pm and 6.30pm for Wannenes and PIASA’s joined forces.
In the first catalogue, a true standout is the pair of armchairs in ash, brass and Vienna straw by Gio Ponti and Angelo Crippa. Elegant and functional, they were made in Genoa around 1952 for the halls of the ‘Giulio Cesare’ ocean liner by the 'Officine Allestimento e Riparazioni Navi'. Originality, functionality, style and taste of the time are parts of an indivisible whole of Ponti's professional life, as both an architect and designer. These are parts of an intimate and vital relationship with 'production', as he had said since 1933: "Art has fallen in love with industry, almost feminine, and industry has entered the ranks of intellectual phenomena".
Within the rich catalogue, the Vittoriano Viganò bookcase made of industrial plywood around 1960 stands out. It develops the idea of interlocking as a module that produces various shapes, wanting to confirm a supremacy of the project over the aesthetic value and functionality of the object.
This quirky and charming tea set, made up of four elements in silver, gold and wood, was designed by David Palterer in 1987. Rather different from your usual tea set, it is this disruption of rationalism, this abandonment of form, which makes this set such a visual delight – and a talking piece for any room.
The Totem Library by Cesare Augusto Nava is an example that the strength of Italian design was born and developed in the province. La Nave Arredamenti di Desio is a small all-round company where Augusto, together with a small group of collaborators, designers and manufacturers, created contemporary objects of their time. It was a small ecosystem closed in the microcosm of the company, open to the world.
The auction ‘Jsa: Art Fabrics, a Private Collection’ stems from the need to create a transversal sale process that collects well-known and lesser-known names in the history of 20th-century Italian design. Equally, it includes unique and ad hoc furnishings that deserve an international stage, for example a rare collection of fabrics by artists and designers including Ponti, Fontana, Crippa and Dova, made mostly by Manifattura Jsa di Busto Arsizio.
Founded in 1949 by Luigi Grampa, Manifattura Jsa di Busto Arsizio was at the forefront of technological and production progress, thanks to their integration of artistic research into production, and their eye on the great international examples of design. This spanned Alvar Aalto’s Artek and Arne Jacobsen’s Grantex, to the American examples of Charles and Ray Eames. In 1955, the company printed a ‘Space Concept’ by Lucio Fontana, and also works by Giorgio Pavesi and Cecilia Mora, Marta Latis and Marianne Feldner, as well as the tablecloths by Margherita Patocchi. Of this rare and precious catalogue the pink flowered fabric of 1960 deserves a mention: Feuilles, made by ‘Zakarias’ (a pseudonym of the founder Luigi Grampa).
Not to be missed are the two 'spatialist' lots from 1950 by Lucio Fontana: the first is the silk-screened fabric ‘Volo space’, a unique title in the artist's production.
The second spatialist lot by the famous artist is titled ‘Galaxy’. In its unique texture, it anticipates the third dimension – something that a few years later lead him to cut the canvas.
This unique and unrepeatable example of history of textile art of the second half of the twentieth century comes from a spectacular Sicilian private collection. It will surely attract the attention of a demanding public, and, bringing together two premier auction houses Wannenes and PIASA, it is not to be missed.
![Hans Hartung (1904-1989), ‘T1975-R39, 1975’, acrylic on panel, 54x73 cm, signed and dated in the lower right corner [detail]. Photo © Cambi](https://images.prismic.io/barnebys/ed0a6398-c5df-43f9-88d7-108ce9969387_Cover.jpg?auto=format,compress)
