Gianni Dova

Roberta Sara Gnagnetti
Gianni Dova: architectural and applied arts collaboration

Synthesis of the arts

“To what shall we dedicate those ‘street walls’ that are our facades? […] We shall dedicate them to the arts, to the abstract myths of today’s arts, to the artists”, wrote Gio Ponti in 1952.1
In the article the facades of modern city buildings are considered in a similar way to the “dedicatory” ones of early churches and palaces and are given the same representative, celebratory and, not least, decorative function. In order to achieve this aim of creating modern facades in this way, Ponti suggested a necessary synergy between the work of the architect and that of the artist.
Gio Ponti was not the only one in those years to emphasise the importance of collaboration between architects and artists: the idea had already been in the air for some time. The city that in those years took on a leading role in this context was Milan, destroyed by the bombing and under reconstruction. It is in Milan that the first important examples of collaboration can be found, such as, in 1947, the building at Via Senato 11 by Marco Zanuso and Roberto Menghi, whose facade was decorated with ceramics by Lucio Fontana.
And it is again in Milan that the experimental designs and most innovative ideas in architecture and the “applied arts” were presented, the latter destined to soon become known as “design”, thanks mainly to the important showcase of the Triennali.

The 5th Milan Triennale was opened in Giovanni Muzio’s new Palazzo dell’Arte in 1933, the first in the city, heir to those – first Biennali then Triennali – held previously in the Villa Reale in Monza. It was intended to present the most important innovations in modern architecture and the design of furniture and practical items. Two other Triennali were held before the war, in 1936 and 1940.
The fame of the exhibition did not dwindle, despite the suspension of activities during the war, and afterwards the institution resumed work with new vigour.
The first postwar Triennale opened in 1947, with “reconstruction” in full swing. It is evident how important the ideas and design theories were in this context; the ruined city had to be reorganised and to flourish anew. Although the fundamental works of recovery and restoration of the ancient heritage must on one hand be remembered, on the other it is necessary to emphasise the extensive participation of architects in competitions of ideas and designs not only to “build anew” but also to “build the new” to meet the town planning and residential needs of the growing city.
The Triennale was seen as the most suitable place for expressing all this.

A design for the new construction of an entire experimental district, the QT8 – Quartiere Triennale 8a (fig. 1), was presented at this eighth Triennale in 1947 by the architect Piero Bottoni.
The architect had had the project in mind for some time and presented his idea to the mayor of Milan Antonio Greppi on 17 October 1945.
Bottoni wrote: “The story of this project and the struggles it entailed is the story of the Eighth Triennale, still so lively in its violent controversy, which began more than a year before the exhibition opened and did not end even at its close.”2

Planimetria del quartiere sperimentale QT8, 1947.
Fig. 1. Planimetria del quartiere sperimentale QT8, 1947. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.

Accomplishing the Quartiere was thus the hub around which the Eighth Triennale was organised. Its gradual construction began from this date and was divided into different periods that were to involve the subsequent Triennali. The QT8 arose on city owned property. It was intended to be the first district “having all the characteristics foreseen for new residential districts: extensive natural areas and fixed end use of the type of building to be erected on each plot. […] The QT8 then has one characteristic that clearly differentiates it from any other: it is an experimental district, also of an international nature, in which it is permitted to apply, beyond the regulations that constrain the other parts of the city and under the control of special commissions, all those town planning and construction experiments thought able to bring definite improvements (technical, hygienic, social) in the housing field. The district is thus destined to become an experimental and living exhibition of modern architecture.”3
The first period called for the construction of essential infrastructure (streets, sewerage, water, electricity etc.) and some buildings, which were already occupied from 1948.
The project, however, aroused some misgivings. Gio Ponti wrote: “Here at the qt8 […] there are already houses but the city has not yet imagined or seen fit to arrange all the streets, [but] we promise the QT8 all our support.”4
So the construction works seem to have departed from the initial planning aims: there were several almost arbitrary buildings that occupied land not yet completely ready to receive them.
Despite this, the project was continued and the first results were presented at the Ninth Triennale of 1951 (fig. 2). These were plans in which the architects, apart from trying out new ways of building and managing the space in the best possible way and at limited cost,5 called for the collaboration of artists for the internal and external decoration of the buildings.
The most important of the designs built was perhaps the so-called “Eleven story house” (fig. 3) by the architects Pietro Lingeri and Luigi Zuccoli. Piero Bottoni himself even pointed out its pre-eminence in an editorial for “Domus” published in 1954: “One of the most interesting and successful examples of a big INA-CASA housing complex. Note the grandeur and order of the west elevation, which does not betray the nature of the big council house. Similarly, on the east elevation, the perfect arrangement of the marks of colour of the clothing and rags permanently displayed to dry in this or that loggia in a squared composition that gives the facade a decorative value in place of the usual disorder typical of the elevation of a council house. Note the big coloured mosaic compositions in the covered areas beneath the house. […] The building rises alone, on the QT8 plan, between areas intended for low buildings and bordering the playground. […] It stands on an area of lawn and plantings.”6
Roberto Crippa, Atanasio Soldati and Giani Dova were invited to decorate and embellish the ground floor porticoes. The artists produced works closely linked to the structure, such as to become part of it: mosaics in ceramic tesserae on the walls and columns of the building’s portico.7
Dova made a big rectangular panel with abstract-geometrical motifs that enliven and animate the wall (fig. 4). The composition is reminiscent of the works produced by the artist at the end of the 1940s, the abstract-geometrical close to the MAC (Movimento Arte Concreta) that likens him to other artists of his generation, not least Roberto Crippa himself, who worked on a nearby column in the portico. In 1951 Dova was already experimenting with his very idiosyncratic “nuclear” painting; though for the decoration of the building he chose a different style, which he had almost completely surpassed in painting but thought the most suitable for the purpose, as Gillo Dorfles had already stated. In contrast to the heated debate between “abstractionists” and “realists” that was taking place amid endless controversy in newspapers and art circles, here the two opposing sides seemed rather to be working together. Indeed, exponents of both factions were involved in the project, with only one decisive difference: the “abstractionists” tended to integrate their work with the architecture, while the “realists” actually went into the apartments with easel paintings.8

Plastico del QT8, secondo progetto di Piero Bottoni, esposto alla IX Triennale, 1951.
Fig. 2. Plastico del QT8, secondo progetto di Piero Bottoni, esposto alla IX Triennale, 1951. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Fronte della INA-CASA a 11 piani nel QT8, 1951.
Fig. 3. Fronte della INA-CASA a 11 piani nel QT8, 1951. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Il pannello a mosaico di Gianni Dova per la INA-CASA a 11 piani nel QT8, 1951.
Fig. 4. Il pannello a mosaico di Dova per la INA-CASA a 11 piani nel QT8, 1951. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.

In 1953 Gianni Dova was asked by the architect Marco Zanuso to design the decorations for his new apartment building in Milan, on the Darsena in Viale Gorizia (fig. 5).
The artist’s work on the facade was discussed in “Spazio”9 and widely in “Domus,”10 in the same article by Gio Ponti quoted above. The Viale Gorizia facade became the exemplum of the desired integration of different skills. Ponti speaks – to Gianni Dova – of “dedicated” facades like those of the early churches.
The experience of the “Eleven storey house” in the QT8 was certainly a valuable one, but Dova found himself faced with a much more monumental undertaking in Viale Gorizia. In this case the artist once again opted for an abstract, but decidedly more potent and less rigid composition: thick, broken lines of different colours extend out from common nuclei, crossing and overlapping one another, like cracks in the plaster, or like branches or roots, and cover the entire facade, wrapping it.
The material used was Fulget (a plaster of marble chippings), which Gio Ponti once again discussed in “Domus”, pointing out its advantages.11 As is often seen in the history of art, knowledge of the characteristics of the materials is fundamental for the success of the works and, in some cases, also decisive in the choice of compositions and designs. The collaboration with architects did not end with these two examples and the artist was involved in numerous projects also relating to interior fittings and decorations.
He was asked, for example, by Vittoriano Viganò to produce a big decorative panel in an interior, as Luigi Moretti recalled in an article published in “Spazio”12 in 1952; and once again by Marco Zanuso to do the floor in the Linoleum shop in Via Dante in 1953.

The attention paid by architects and artists to the question of their mutual collaboration was clearly manifested in the Milan exhibition Le arti figurative nell’architettura at the Amici della Francia in May 1952, curated by Beniamino Joppolo and Giorgio Kaisserlian, in which Gianni Dova also took part, along with others.13

Decorazione di Gianni Dova per la facciata dell’edificio di Marco Zanuso in viale Gorizia a Milano, 1953.
Fig. 5. Decorazione di Dova per la facciata dell’edificio di Marco Zanuso in viale Gorizia a Milano, 1953.
© Triennale Milano - Archivi.

But let us go back to the Ninth Triennale of 1951.
Dova’s involvement did not end with the decoration of the “Eleven storey house”; indeed, the artist was actually one of the main figures of the event, taking part in various sections and various roles in the Palazzo dell’Arte.
The main theme chosen for the exhibition was, not by chance, the “synthesis of the arts”. The aim was to give tangible and exemplary form to the collaboration between artists and architects to achieve a common goal. The idea had its roots in the past: virtuous examples may be found in Greek classicism, on the sites of medieval cathedrals and in grandiose palaces, or all those cases where architecture was able to become an immersive and synaesthetic “experience”, capable of making a profound mark on the lives of people and of society. Another parallel concept must then be added to this: that of “beauty within everyone’s reach”. Proceeding from William Morris’s Arts and Crafts and moving through the Wagnerian “total work of art” taken up by the Secessions and the late nineteenth-century movements, the idea took shape of a democratic art, accessible to all, able not only to embellish but also, consequently, to bring joy. The artistic intervention on architecture thus had a very different purpose than that of the instruction and education proposed by Mario Sironi in his Manifesto della pittura murale14 of 1933, proposed as one of the central themes of the 5th Triennale almost twenty years earlier. The times really had changed.
The guideline is well expressed in the exhibition catalogue: “For some time architecture and the figurative arts seem to have ignored one another, almost as if they have ceased being different solutions to a problem that never ceases to be one. Even when the architect has turned to the painter or the sculptor, he has too often done so only to have the ‘piece’, regardless of the precise architectural needs of form, colour, volumetric relations, perspective cadences and light effects; that is, regardless of the inseparable elements of architectural unity in which the work of art can, or rather must, enter where it can be a necessarily coordinated and cogent part of the whole, not unlike the case of a given note in a given score.”15
And the hoped for “collaboration” took shape right from the start at the Ninth Triennale. Along with the architects Luciano Baldessari and Marcello Grisotti, one of the most innovative artists of the moment, Lucio Fontana, also contributed to the design of the exhibition space. Following his examples and indications, many other artists took part in the stagings, in particular Gianni Dova and Roberto Crippa. It was not a question of applying their own research to architecture, but of seeking the perfect integration of structure and artistic practice. New materials that scientific research had made available were also used in their works, in line with the ideas expressed by Fontana himself in the Manifesti del Movimento spaziale;16 neon and Wood’s light in particular were widely used.17
The first results of the joint action could be seen right from the “Entrance and reception areas”: “These areas are intended to once again present the problem of a not coincidental collaboration between architect, sculptor, painter and decorator. It was basically decided to set dimensional limits and precise relations within which it would be possible for each artist to have the greatest freedom of expression.”18

The areas were distinguished by “a kind of spatial continuum”, in which the visitor was involved “through ‘special effects’”, that infused “the feeling of light and of emptiness, in an invasive, transformed space dominated by abstract forces.”19The opportunity offered by Baldessari was, for some artists, a way of implementing new artistic hypotheses, almost anticipating the “environmental” outcomes of the 1960s.
The most illustrative work was undoubtedly Fontana’s Spatial Concept (fig. 6), a big arabesque made with neon tubes placed at the top of the main staircase, which, unsurprisingly, won the Gran Premio delle Nazioni. A silver medal was awarded to Umberto Milani for his work in the entrance: the artist presented a set of ovoid plaster blocks suspended from the ceiling, titled Forms.
The works by Gianni Dova and Roberto Crippa along the walls of the two flights of stairs leading from the ground floor to the basement were equally interesting. The left flight was entrusted to Crippa, the right to Dova. Both used fluorescent paints in Wood’s light for the decoration (fig. 7).
The engaging and evocative atmosphere gave the observer the impression of crossing a mysterious place, a kind of magical passage between two worlds, that of reality and that of dreams, the same that can be conjured up by theatre and cinema, to which the section placed at the end of the descent was dedicated.
Gianni Dova also designed the staging for the Form and colour in sport section, in partnership with Vittoriano Viganò and Enrico Freyrie, featuring industrial and hand-crafted sports equipment. Apart from having a practical function, these items can also be enjoyed aesthetically, “forms that have either attained the essential nature inseparably linked to their function, or are developed by means of study or experience.”20
Dova made four mannequins in wire, working with Roberto Crippa and Umberto Milani. These hung from the ceiling suspended above the ground; dressed and fitted with some equipment, they represented the players of four different sports: skiing, rugby, baseball and boxing (fig. 8).
The skier, probably cross-country, was presented wearing hat, face mask, gloves, ski pants, boots and the number 8. The rugby and baseball players hung at the same height immediately after: the former wearing a face protection mask, a vertically stripped jersey with the number 19, knee pads, horizontally striped socks, boots and holding the ball; the baseball player was in uniform with cap, socks, boots and glove. The wires forming the figure of the boxer hung lower down, just above the ground: his gloves, shorts and boots could be seen, while his head was a simple flattened metal disc.

Luce spaziale di Lucio Fontana sul soffitto dello scalone d’onore della IX Triennale, 1951.
Fig. 6. Luce spaziale di Lucio Fontana sul soffitto dello scalone d’onore della IX Triennale, 1951.
© Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Decorazione con vernice fluorescente alla luce di Wood di Gianni Dova per la IX Triennale, 1951.
Fig. 7. Decorazione con vernice fluorescente alla luce di Wood di Gianni Dova
per la IX Triennale, 1951. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Mostra «Forma e colore nello sport» alla IX Triennale, 1951.
Fig. 8. Mostra «Forma e colore nello sport» alla IX Triennale, 1951. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.

The experience gained at the Ninth Triennale led Gianni Dova to take an active part in the staging of the subsequent exhibition in 1954.
Its theme remained the union of the arts, but this was seen mainly embodied in furnishings and practical items aimed at high quality mass production rather than in architecture. That which was from here on to be known as “design” was here definitively created.
Ivan Matteo Lombardo, president of the Ente Triennale, clarified the two themes of the tenth exhibition in his inaugural speech: “[First] Unity, which is the correlation and almost reciprocal nature of the arts. [Second] Collaboration between the world of art and that of industrial production […] We have thus arrived not, as may be thought, at a kind of industrialisation of art or aestheticisation of technology, but at that ideal place, equidistant as much from the calligraphy of the academy as from a blind physical determinism, in which the product of technology, emerging from formless chance, is taken into the sphere of art, while this – rejecting any gratuitous approach, abandoning any capriciously and obstinately personal licence – assumes a precise civil and social function.”21
Giulio Carlo Argan offered an interesting analysis of design and the role of the designer: “Design, in its numerous aspects, is the salient nature, the specific process of creative activity and thus of the historic progress of contemporary society […] the designer cannot be qualified as anything but an artist. And, precisely in this sense, design has a fundamental importance in the history of culture: it resolves the hierarchical disparity between artist and craftsman, elevating the latter to the rank of artist and not, as is often asserted, taking the artist to the level of craftsman.”22
The entrance and reception areas became the privileged (and only) place in which to show “the works of art in their direct use in architecture. The Triennale is an exhibition, indeed, the only exhibition in which works of art are shown ‘in progress’ or in place.”23 The inset or fitted work of art may be considered as a “peculiarly and exquisitely architectural and not pictorial element, […] so it is extremely important that it is the architect who sees to and decides on the suitability of every chromatic and plastic intervention in his construction, while the work of the painter and the sculptor may be integrated with that of the builder, but only in such a way as not to overlay or mask the essential structure of the building, and only through its precise, coordinated and predetermined stylistic consistency.”24
The results achieved in the staging of the Tenth Triennale do not seem to have satisfied everyone though. The artistic interventions were poorly integrated according to Gillo Dorfles, and Leonardo Borgese was even more scathing in the pages of the “Corriere della Sera.”25 Only Francesco Saba, in “Avanti!”, seems to have defended the organisers and artists, despite defining abstract art as “useless, not very serious.”26

The artistic works in the entrance areas were, to be honest, uneven and not very harmonious with one another or with the space. The works and artists are well described in an article in “Domus,”27 in which the big “parietal model” by Umberto Milani on a wall of the entrance foyer is noted, along with the Pig Hunt, a polychrome ceramic group by Agenore Fabbri in the lobby (now in the garden of the Palazzo Sormani in Milan), Threshing, a painting by Giuseppe Zigaina, on the front wall of the lobby, twenty sliding doors painted by Mirko along the main staircase, Rhythmic Spa­tiality, a composition by Enrico Prampolini in the first floor lobby, and a sculpture in sheet iron and copper by Berto Lardera, also in the first floor lobby. The article also describes the floors and ceilings. The ceiling of the staircase and first floor lobby was designed by Giuseppe Capogrossi: discs of coloured glass suspended by a weave of wires, beneath a white curtain. The floor and ceiling of the entrance lobby were by Roberto Crippa and Gianni Dova respectively. Crippa’s floor was an acetovinylic resin inlay, while Dova’s ceiling was a “plastic composition in wood” (fig. 9). The Crippa-Dova pair appeared once again and the two artists really did seem to be in harmony, given that their works alone seemed to be in dialogue and perfectly inserted in the architectural space. Crippa’s floor had a big black, tangled, spiral line, an indicative sign in line with his contemporary research, which seemed like a projection of Fontanta’s now famous neon of 1951, while Dova designed a ceiling in bas relief with twisting, potent linear elements that met and crossed over one another; they were signs that referred to a not impetuous expressiveness, as in the case of Crippa’s spirals, but almost random, or better, unconscious, close to some experimental – and rare – contemporary works that seemed to anticipate the forthcoming neo-Surrealist period.
Dova here seemed to allow himself greater expressive freedom compared to his previous contribution and, especially, to the panel produced for the “Eleven storey house” at the QT8, managing to give the impression of freshness and “gestural” spontaneity to a monumental work. This was also possible thanks to his knowledge and correct use of the materials supplied, in line with the aims of the event, by different manufacturers and exhibitors. The ceiling was made with laminated panels of “Novopan.”28 The “Novopan” process, which allows the industrial production of pressed wood particle board with smooth surfaces, was developed in Switzerland in 1945 and is still a very important sector in the timber industry. In Italy “Novopan” panels are produced in Naples and Lissone.
In close communication with Ettore Sottsass jr., and working with Sirio Musso, Gianni Dova was also curator of the “Art Lithography in Italy” section (fig. 10). The organisers’ initial idea was to present the last fifty years of Italian lithography, but there was too much material so it was decided to restrict the field to more recent works, with some important exceptions. Fluorescent ceiling lamps screened by a white curtain were chosen for the lighting and the walls were painted a very light grey. The lithographs were displayed under glass on panels of “Novopan”, self-supporting with special metal brackets, arranged along the axes and diagonals of the room and used on both sides. Green plants completed the staging, placed on wooden pedestals or hung from the ceiling.29
Gianni Dova also showed one of his lithographs (no 32), printed by Stamperia del Cavallino in Venice.30

Atrio e vestibolo del piano terreno della X Triennale, 1954.
Fig. 9. Atrio e vestibolo del piano terreno della X Triennale, 1954. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Mostra «La litografia d'arte in Italia» alla X Triennale, 1954.
Fig. 10. Mostra «La litografia d'arte in Italia» alla X Triennale, 1954. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.

The artist’s subsequent involvement in the staging of the Triennali took place in 1960, on the occasion of its twelfth presentation, when he was responsible for decorating the ceiling above the main staircase (fig. 11). This time it featured a big painting with forms and beings that were very close to contemporary works often produced in water paint, with soft outlines. It was intended to give the impression of immersing oneself in another world, made up of liquid visions, and of being almost overwhelmed by it. This ceiling clearly showed the change that was taking place in Dova’s artistic research, increasingly closer to the atmosphere of new Surrealism that was typical of many of the leading European artists of those years.
Dova’s contributions to the Triennali continued in 1964, at the thirteenth exhibition, which was very different to the previous years. The choice of theme fell on “leisure time” and showed the change that had by then taken place in Italian society, in the light of the economic boom: the organisation of time outside work was an important issue, also in terms of sociology, and thus became the object of study and research. The organisers of this event, Vittorio Gregotti and Umberto Eco, thus proposed helping engender critical self-awareness in the visitors, encouraging them to reconsider the way in which modern man used his time.31

The innovations also concerned the staging, particularly the entrance halls, which were turned into very striking spaces. Rogers wrote: “It must be said immediately, to place the right emphasis on these words, that the quality of the thirteenth presentation of this important event is to have broken every figurative framework of previous events and to thus be significant, because it is expressed with a current and immediate language.”32
Writers, sociologists, painters and sculptors were involved in planning the spaces, with the aim of stimulating dialogue and debate, “a meeting of the most vibrant cultural forces that […] seek to give us a truer image of our world and at the same time show us the hypothesis of a structural transformation.”33
Dova’s work in the Parco Sempione was also part of this context; it too, as always, an exhibition venue. An iron bridge, suspended above Viale Alemagna, connected the Palazzo dell’Arte to the natural area on the other side of the street and was divided into different spaces. The whole section was surrounded by a propulit wall that separated the exhibition area from the rest of the space and the individual spaces from one another.34 Two of these spaces were connected by the Liston, a walkway made up of five panels, each designed by a different artist: Roberto Crippa, Lucio Fontana, Agenore Fabbri, Mario Rossello and our Gianni Dova (fig. 12). The panels were made of vitreous mosaic and presented geometrical compositions in a vaguely “optical” style: unusual motifs for the artists involved, but suited to highlighting the material and the role of the “promenade”, above all in line with the contemporary research of the artistic groups promoting kinetic and programmed art.
Some of these works are recalled by Dova himself in a manuscript (fig. 13) on the back of a photo that shows him in the Galleria del Naviglio in 1952, part of an undiscovered longer piece.35

Gianni Dova al lavoro durante la decorazione del soffitto dello scalone d’onore della XII Triennale, 1960.
Fig. 11. Dova al lavoro durante la decorazione del soffitto dello scalone d’onore della XII Triennale, 1960.
© Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Il Liston della XIII Triennale, 1964.
Fig. 12. Il Liston della XIII Triennale, 1964.
© Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Manoscritto di Gianni Dova al verso di una fotografia ritrovata in Archivio.
Fig. 13. Manoscritto di Gianni Dova al verso di una fotografia ritrovata in Archivio. © Triennale Milano - Archivi.

Applied arts

FABRICS

Gianni Dova also took part in the Tenth Triennale of 1954 as a designer.
The artist’s collaboration with Busto Arsizio’s JSA textile company in particular was very profitable. The latter had already begun presenting genuine “artist’s fabrics” at the Ninth Triennale.
In 1954 JSA exhibited numerous furnishing fabrics in a ground floor room at the end of the lobby, among them a colour printed fabric by Gianni Dova36 (fig. 14). The compositions for the furnishing fabrics, less linked to the structural nature of the architecture, were freer and closer to contemporary spatial and nuclear research.
JSA fabrics with the artist’s designs (a grey satin material printed in different colours and a grey cotton cloth also in different colours)37 were shown in another ground floor room and several curtains in the “Pavilion for the display of mass produced furniture” curated by Osvaldo Borsani.38
The Arcobaleno fabric won third prize in the international competition for designs of printed fabrics for furnishing.39

In 1955 Dova received another award for a fabric design, this time in the Premio La Rinascente Compasso d’Oro,40 a prestigious design competition (and exhibition) conceived by Gio Ponti starting from 1954.
The winning fabric, Novoshantung Perlisa Arcobaleno P.496 (fig. 15), was again made by JSA, though on this occasion Dova also worked with the Socota company of Como. His fabrics were indicated and published in “Domus”41 and also mentioned in the catalogue of the Eleventh Triennale of 1957,42 where he exhibited the Composizione fabric, with “patterns in green, pale yellow, black and other colours.”43
One of his tapestry cartoons was also presented at the 1957 Triennale.
In the following years Dova went back to focusing on fabric designs. One example of these was a special project by the weekly “Amica” in 1976. A picture of a beautiful silk scarf whose pattern was designed by the artist was published in the periodical, and the proposal for readers was to buy the same scarf by cash on delivery. The pattern featured a dark figure, similar to Dove’s contemporary owls, standing out against a magnificent light blue background, this too close to the celestial colours typical of the oils and temperas of those years.

Tessuti JSA in mostra alla X Triennale, 1954.
Fig. 14. Tessuti JSA in mostra alla X Triennale, 1954.
© Triennale Milano - Archivi.
Tessuto manifattura JSA Novoshantung Perli­sa Arcobaleno P.496, su disegno di Gianni Dova, 1955.
Fig. 15. Tessuto manifattura JSA Novoshantung
Perli­sa Arcobaleno P.496, su disegno di Dova, 1955.

JEWELLERY

Dova ventured into a new field of design for the first time at the 1957 Triennale, exhibiting some interesting pieces in the “Jewellery section”. This had been arranged by Arnaldo and Gio Pomodoro who, in an attempt to “update” Italian jewellery, proposed important examples of collaboration between jewellery companies and artists, as stated in the catalogue: “This is what the organisers proposed attempting, launching experimental production in which some Valenza Po jewellers and some ‘avant-garde artists’ took part”, including, along with Gianni Dova, Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo, Aldo Bergolli, Cesare Peverelli, Ettore Sottsass, Emilio Scanavino and others. “The artists taking part in this exhibition derive their latest jewels from the current ‘figurative’ – of, if you like, ‘non figurative’ – experiences of the so-called major arts, as has always occurred over the centuries and as, here too, is documented by those rare antique pieces that are displayed precisely as a declaration of a custom that, in our opinion, is worth being preserved, of a tradition that is the only valid and real one: that of the authenticity of art.”44
Gianni Dova exhibited, in showcase four, a gold ring with black enamel and rubies and an embossed gold leaf brooch with rubies and black and green enamel (fig. 16), both made by Saverio Cavalli of Valenza Po.

This was not an isolated experience. In 1962 the artist took part in a jewellery exhibition held at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan by Carlo Cardazzo, who for at least a decade had been the most important associate and promoter of the spatial artists.45 The occasion was very special (the exhibition was presented with an address by Salvatore Quasimodo) and documented the artistic vibrancy and vast interests of the art world in that period. Dova presented three brooches, a ring and a bracelet in gold and precious stones.

Spilla di Gianni Dova esposta alla XI Triennale, 1957.
Fig. 16. Spilla di Gianni Dova esposta alla XI Triennale, 1957.
© Triennale Milano - Archivi.

CERAMICS

Gianni Dova had already been working with ceramics from the end of the 1940s, an ancient material that had always fascinated him. The artist’s preferred place of work in those years was Albisola Marina, in particular Tullio d’Albisola’s Mazzotti factory. This was also frequented by many other fellow adventurers, including the inseparable Roberto Crippa and, of course, Lucio Fontana.
Working close together, the artists stimulated one another, creating joint works and trying out procedures and techniques. Numerous differently shaped plates, vases and containers were made here, but also sculptures.
“Crippa, Dova and Peverelli’s exuberance created problems in the ordered Albisola factories: their creative enthusiasm led them to try out unusual and extravagant techniques in the decoration of plates and vases, such as painting obtained by letting drops of paint fall onto glazed plates, and often also onto the floor, from the top of a ladder or a chair, or […] pouring the paint onto the edges of big vases that had previously been vaguely decorated and at times causing, with the dripping, an accumulation of paint on the base of the vases and consequent damage in the firing. ‘The traditional spirit of the factory’ cried out at the waste: discussions and arguments arose and, finally, Crippa and Dova loaded their production, along with that of Peverelli, onto a car and […] left for Santa Margherita Ligure.”46

Some idea of Dova’s ceramic production in the 1950s may be gained by observing two sculptures (cat. NM 1955 D6 and NM 1955 D7), of unknown location, known only from some photos found in the archive. The dating is not certain, but they are presumably from the middle of the decade or shortly after. One of them shows a grotesque, terrifying face, or mask, similar to the disturbing and obscure beings that populate the works on canvas of the same period. The second sculpture is more singular: it is a kind of high-relief, made up of a base from which various forms, a tondo and numerous cones like talons or spines, emerge. The subject seems closer to slightly later works, featuring almost timid figures who watch us from hidden places and protect themselves with the weapons they have on hand.
A polychrome tile in a private collection (cat. NM 1955 32) and a glazed terracotta (cat. NM 1955 33) date from the same period and are indicative of the extreme experimentation the artist was engaged in. In these cases, too, the works recall the canvases of the period, with presences between the threatening and the comic.

These and other works, such as the plates (fig. 17 and 18) or the vases, appeared in numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad over subsequent years. So ceramics was a part of Dova’s artistic activity from start to finish. It is a sphere in which the artist felt free to experiment and also a place to try out his aesthetic ideas: from an initial, still spatial-nuclear moment, with a free and, in some cases almost Zen gesture, to the appearance of his metamorphic monster-beings and the explosion of colours and light in the final years. His refined, attentive production was always of the highest quality.

Gianni Dova, piatto in ceramica dipinta, primi anni cinquanta, diametro cm 25. Collezione privata.
Fig. 17. Gianni Dova, piatto in ceramica dipinta, primi anni cinquanta,
diametro cm 25. Collezione privata. ©Archivio Gianni Dova.
Gianni Dova, piatto in ceramica dipinta, anni ottanta, diametro cm 52.
Fig. 18. Gianni Dova, piatto in ceramica dipinta, anni ottanta, diametro cm 52. Collezione privata. © Archivio Gianni Dova.

Other projects

As seen at the Triennali, Gianni Dova worked on layout designs from the 1950s. But rather than diminishing in subsequent years, his creative streak in this area actually deepened.
In 1978 he was commissioned to design the sets for the ballet Inverno to be performed at the Massimo theatre in Palermo, with music by Niccolò Castiglioni. The backdrop was inspired by the painting Underwater form of 1952.
But it was not only theatre that interested him. In 1985 he took part in the exhibition “Il cinema n. 1” at the Galleria Gastaldelli in Milan.47 His Project for a film was published in the catalogue and is worth printing in full:

A smallish lake framed by low, rugged mountains dotted with green and pink: the one on the right hides the continuation of the lake which seems rather completely enclosed in a large oval shape before me, leaning on a parapet twenty metres above the water. Everything is amazingly calm, but suddenly a yacht enters from that hidden landscape… at first slowly and then faster in wide, repeated turns… and at each turn it tries to climb the mountain in front… and always slides again into the water. Only now do I notice that there is a man on the boat, not tall, with straight, black hair. He does not look like me, but I feel that we are the same person… my double… and I am gripped by a strong, but not unpleasant, sense of dismay, and stay there where I am watching myself, fascinated, “reflected” on the boat.
And again new turns and new failed attempts, until the man jumps out of the boat and in rapid leaps is half way up the mountain and from there takes a big dive down into the water… and almost brushes the wall where I stand… and I find myself submerged and stifled in an extraordinary world of colours and green, red and blue and even phosphorescent forms…

Gianni Dova, «drappellone» per il Palio di Siena, 1973. Siena, Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila.
Fig. 19. Gianni Dova, «drappellone» per il Palio di Siena, 1973. Siena, Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila.

Other special projects engaged him over the course of the years.
For example, in 1973 he was asked to produce the big “banderole” to be awarded to the Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila, winner of the Palio of Siena on 16 August (fig. 19).
Over the course of the 1980s he also made a banner for the Comune di Montalcino and, in 1986, the standard for the Giostra della Quintana in Foligno.
Finally, in 1991 for the “Carnevalotto”, he worked on the making of Ranforinco, a sculpture in moulded paper to be awarded to the winning float in the Viareggio Carnival.

Conclusion

This short article is intended to emphasise the importance that experiences linked to different spheres had in Gianni Dova’s artistic life; experiences derived from numerous interests, indicating a curiosity about man, the world and their mutual relations, which always remained alive in the artist.

    1. Gio Ponti, Astrattismo per una facciata, in “Domus”, no. 267, February 1952.
    2. Piero Bottoni, Il Quartiere Sperimentale Triennale QT8, n.e., n.p. [1951].
    3. La IX Triennale, exhibition catalogue, Triennale, Milan 1951, pp. 321-322.
    4. Gio Ponti, La Triennale nel suo quartiere sperimentale QT8, in “Domus”, November 1951, p. 4.
    5. The fundamental technical and financial contribution, in this sense, is that of the INA-CASA (cf. La IX Triennale, p. 327).
    6. Piero Bottoni, Antologia di edifici moderni in Milano, editorial, in “Domus”, 1954, pp. 211-212. The area no longer corresponds to Bottoni’s description: the building is not the tallest in the area and is hidden from sight by a garden with numerous very tall trees; the plaster facade is no longer white but a dark ochre.
    7. La IX Triennale cit., p. 324.
    8. Paolo Campiglio, Esempi di «sintesi delle arti» a Milano negli anni Cinquanta, in Milano 1950­-59: il rinnovamento della pittura in Italia, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni and Paolo Campiglio, exhibition catalogue (Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti, 22 June – 21 September), Civiche Gallerie d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Ferrara 1997, pp. 103-104.
    9. Sp., Pittura sulle strutture, in “Spazio”, III, no. 6, December 1951 – April 1952, p. 59.
    10. Gio Ponti, Astrattismo per una facciata, in “Domus”, no. 267, February 1952.
    11. Gio Ponti, Ai pittori astratti per collaborare con gli architetti moderni, in “Domus”, no. 268, March 1952, p. 52.
    12. Luigi Moretti, Composizione di uno spazio, arredamento di Vittoriano Viganò, in “Spazio”, III, no. 6, December 1951 – April 1952, pp. 70-73.
    13. Le arti figurative nell’architettura (Cascella A. e P., Baj, Peverelli, Dova, Crippa, Burri, Colombo, Preda, Fontana, Donati, Cagli, Santomaso, Vedova, Matta, Lusignoli, Dorazio, Prampolini, Monnini, Milani, Sanfilippo, Joppolo, Tullier), edited by Beniamino Joppolo and Giorgio Kaisserlian, exhibition catalogue (May), Amici della Francia, Milan 1952.
    14. Sironi, Campigli, Carrà, Funi, Manifesto della pittura murale, in “Colonna”, December 1933.
    15. Luciano Baldessari, Ambienti di ingresso e rappresentanza, in La IX Triennale, cit., p. 23.
    16. Cf. Spaziali, 1947; Manifesto dello Spazialismo, 1948; Proposta di un regolamento, 1950; Manifesto dell’arte spaziale, from the discussions at the Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, on the evening of 26 November 1951.
    17. Wood’s light had already been used by Lucio Fontana in the now famous Am­biente Nero presented at the Galleria del Naviglio in 1949. It is evident that the Argentinian artist had for some time been cultivating the idea of the immersive, “total work of art” and of “artistic experience”.
    18. Luciano Baldessari, Ambienti di ingresso e rappresentanza, in La IX Triennale, cit., p. 23.
    19. Paolo Campiglio, Esempi di «sintesi delle arti» a Milano negli anni Cinquanta, cit., p. 105.
    20. La forma nello sport, in “Domus”, November 1951, p. 14.
    21. La X Triennale, exhibition catalogue, Triennale, Milan 1954, pp. 22-23.
    22. Giulio Carlo Argan, Arte e produzione alla X Triennale, in “Casabella”, November-December 1954.
    23. Opere d’arte e ambiente, alla Triennale, in “Domus”, November 1954, p. 14.
    24. Gillo Dorfles, La sintesi delle «arti maggiori», in “Casabella”, November-December 1954, p. 46.
    25. Cf. Leonardo Borgese, Le «forme utili» trionfano alla Triennale, in “Corriere della Sera”, 1 September 1954.
    26. Cf. Francesco Saba, Più sì che no alla Triennale, in “Avanti!”, 26 September 1954.
    27. Opere d’arte e ambiente, alla Triennale, pp. 15-17.
    28. Cf. Atrio e vestibolo del piano terreno, in La X Triennale cit., p. 35.
    29. Cf. La litografia d’arte in Italia, in La X Triennale cit., p. 375.
    30. Cf. La X Triennale cit., p. 377.
    31. Cf. Paolo Portoghesi, L’anticatalogo della XIII Triennale di Milano, in “L’Architettura”, November 1964, p. 439.
    32. Ernesto N. Rogers, La Triennale è uscita dal coma, in “Casabella”, August 1964, p. 1.
    33. Paolo Portoghesi, L’anticatalogo della XIII Triennale di Milano cit., p. 439.
    34. Cf. Anty Pansera, Storia e cronaca della Triennale, Longanesi, Milan 1978, pp. 519-520.
    35. Cf. Paolo Campiglio, Le metafisiche fluorescenze di Gianni Dova, in Gianni Dova, Skira, Milan 2008, p. 17. The artist writes: “models for the external decoration of a small house in plastic materials and a big panel inside. I did the facade of a big building at 14 Viale Gorizia with the architect Zanuso. I made two big panels for the architect Bottoni at the Q.T.8 in Milan and I worked at the Milan Triennale. I made the wall decorations and inlays and the floor decorations for the Linoleum shop in Via Dante. At the Triennale I presented four wire mannequins dressed in sports clothes in the Salone dello Sport that were very successful. I have designed several shop windows.”
    36. Cf. Mostra di tessuti di arredamento n. 1, in La X Triennale cit., p. 36. Aldo Bergolli, Roger Bezombes, Roberto Crippa, Sergio Dangelo, Enzo Pagani, Cesare Peverelli, Jean Picart Lo Doux, Gio Ponti, Adriano di Spilimbergo and Piero Zuffi also exhibited alongside Dova.
    37. Cf. La X Triennale cit., p. 350.
    38. Ibid., p. 419.
    39. Ibid., p. 28.
    40. Cf. Premio La Rinascente Compasso d’Oro, exhibition catalogue, La Rinascente, Milan, 1955, pp. 38 and 59.
    41. Cf. Per l’arredamento: stoffe, mobili, lampade segnalate al «compasso d’oro» per il buon dise­gno, in “Domus”, XXVII, no. 304, March 1955 and no. 309, August 1955, p. 2.
    42. Cf. L’XI Triennale, exhibition catalogue, Triennale, Milan 1957, p. 288.
    43. Ibid., p. 85.
    44. Ibid., p. 57.
    45. I gioielli di Sebastiani. I pittori alla scoperta dell’oro, pezzi unici di: Baj, Bianco, Cocteau, Corpora, Crippa, Dova, Fabbri, Fontana, Franceschini, Franchina, Gentilini, Rossello, Scanavino, Verdet. Realizzati da: Luigi Sebastiani, exhibition catalogue (December), Galleria del Naviglio, Milan 1962.
    46. Luciano and Margherita Gallo Pecca, L’avventura artistica di Albisola 1920-­1990, Editrice Ligure, Savona 1993, p. 121.
    47. Il cinema n. 1, edited by Alberto T. Galimberti, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Gastaldelli, Milan 1958.

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