Gio Ponti [Editorial Director]: DOMUS 351. Milan, Editoriale Domus: February 1959. Original edition. Text in Italian. A good or better vintage magazine with spotted covers, age-toned page edges and a few pages with a slight tackiness. Cover collage by Alan Fletcher.
9.5 x 12.75 magazine with approximately 72 pages (printed on a variety of paper stocks) of color and black and white examples of the best modern interior and industrial design, circa 1959 -- with beautiful color engraving and gravure printing throughout.
Long considered Europe's most influential architecture and design magazine, Domus was founded by Gio Ponti in 1928 as a "living diary" in which he could advertise his own work, outline the "aims" of his projects and raise people's awareness about other design issues. Called the "Mediterranean Megaphone, " Domus lauded mass-production and tried to link architecture and artisans in a new, unforeseen ways. Ponti left Domus in 1940 to start his other journal, Stile in which he could focus on art and the impact of the war on Italian architects and architecture. In 1948 Ponti returned to Domus, where he recast it in his own eclectic, exuberant vision of the modern and tirelessly championed designers he admired, notably Carlo Mollino.
Contents:
In his 1957 book Amate L'Architettura (In Praise of Achitecture) Ponti extolled his audience to "Love architecture, be it ancient or modern. Love it for its fantastic, adventurous and solemn creations; for its inventions; for the abstract, allusive and figurative forms that enchant our spirit and enrapture our thoughts. Love architecture, the stage and support of our lives." This spirit reverberates through every page of Domus.
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