‘Lisa Ponti Drawings and Voices’ exhibition at Triennale Milano – Photo ©Gianluca Di Ioia.
Art, Design – Lisa Ponti is mainly known as an art and design critic, as she kept her artwork as a more intimate and private way of expression. Indeed, even though she had been making drawings from a very young age, it was only in 1992, at the age of seventy, that she put on her first solo show. La Triennale Milano presents 70 artworks of the late artist – the eldest daughter of architect Gio Ponti. The exhibition Lisa Ponti: Drawings and Voices is on display until May 7 on the mezzanine floor of the museum.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2023 on Archipanic.
©Gianluca Di Ioia.
“In Lisa Ponti’s works, the drawing, trace and word become as one, acquiring new fairy-tale, dreamlike and wry meanings.” Explain curators Damiano Gullì and Salvatore Licitra. Together with their lively, agile, precise, and rapid traces, her drawings and water colours often feature short phrases or poetic exclamations.
Drawing by Lisa Ponti – Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
She sometimes included multi-material additions, such as collages from newspapers or personal photographs, the marks and strokes of highlighters and brushes, inserts of cotton and wadding, or stickers. “These humble materials, taken from everyday life, convey great evocative power and lyricism.”
“I was sleepy, she wasn’t” – Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
All the drawings are made on A4 sheets, the medium of choice for her art. “The immense is reduced to the distance between marks on a standard format,” she explained on this matter. “It is always best to use the same size sheet so the drawing knows where to land.”
‘The bear doesn’t frighten me’ – Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
In addition to the drawings, the exhibition also comprises Lisa Ponti’s critical work, with extracts from her texts and contributions published in Stile and Domus magazines, to which she contributed. The excerpts are read by the actress Ginestra Paladino and evocatively disseminated across the exhibition space.
Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
All photos: courtesy of La Triennale Milano.
Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
“The moving brain makes some noise at the beginning” – Photo by Salvatore Licitra.
‘Lisa Ponti Drawings and Voices’ exhibition at Triennale Milano – Photo ©Gianluca Di Ioia.
