Gio Ponti, Le Navi

In the post-war years, Gio Ponti designed the interiors of ocean liners that would become the pride of the Italian merchant marine, thus helping restore the country’s image after World War II. With their elegant modern interiors, these ships contributed to the taking root of the myth of Italian styling in the 1950s, along with the bodywork of Pininfarina, designer clothes by Schubert, Fontana, Antonelli and Pucci, shoes by Ferragamo and leather goods by Gucci. The ocean liners Conte Grande, Conte Biancamano, Giulio Cesare and Andrea Doria linked Italy with North and South America, while the Oceania and Africa did the same for those continents, representing the creativity of Italian industry abroad. In connection with work on the ships, Ponti summoned such famous artists as Massimo Campigli, Salvatore Fiume and Fausto Melotti to collaborate, as well as highly skilled decorators and craftsmen, including Paolo de Poli and Piero Fornasetti. The transitory nature of Ponti’s naval projects – these ships were in service for only two decades before being supplanted by air transport – has caused a certain lack of critical attention to them; happily, this work allows a wider audience to rediscover a little-known chapter in the vast activity of the Milan master and in the history of Italian interior decoration.