ONE PIECE

Gio Ponti, “Conte Grande” Dining Table, c. 1947

There are pieces of furniture that carry with them the story of a place. This table by Gio Ponti is one of them. Conceived around 1947 for the dining room of the celebrated Italian ocean liner Conte Grande, it belongs to interiors Ponti approached as complete environments, at a moment when Italian design was finding a new language after the war. The table already holds the ideas that would define his work: lightness despite its scale, a precise architectural structure, and an unexpected combination of beech and oak with brass and tinted melamine. Its long, narrow proportions also give it a second life today as a striking console. It is a true document of Ponti’s work on the great Italian liners.

ONE PIECE

Victor Roman, “Araignée” Center Table, c. 1970

Victor Roman (1937–1995) was a French sculptor of Romanian origin whose work moved between abstract sculpture, monumental public commissions and functional objects. Raised in rural Transylvania, he transformed familiar agricultural forms, particularly the plough, into abstract compositions exploring mass, movement and empty space. Created around 1970, the Araignée table extends this sculptural language into furniture. Its bronze structure unfolds into branching, spider-like forms that support the original blue glass top, whose transparency reveals the entire composition from every angle. Roman never treated furniture as a separate discipline, and the result sits naturally between sculpture and design.

On view at Galerie Gabriel, New York.