Goodbye Lisetta

Opening image: Lisa Licitra Ponti (1922-2019) photographed by Ray Eames in Venice

Her crystal-clear blue eyes closed last night, leaving us with the memory of a great woman who lived her life in the inconspicuous and tender manner that came naturally to her. She loved drawing from a young age and practised it alongside her father Gio Ponti – the great Italian architect, a leading light of the 20th century and the founder of Domus. As Lisa used to explain, Domus originated out of a brilliant Gio Ponti idea: so that it could be understood in other countries too, the great architect decided to allocate more space to pictures and shorten the texts. This meant that the photographs would lead readers through the narration.

Lisa the artist lives on in her drawings, traced lightly on A4 paper and with an almost childlike air: a spindly articulation of the sign, sometimes accompanied by words as if nursery rhymes or short poems. We shall say goodbye with an observation of her own that symbolises her genuine modesty: “When the moon is struck by bright light it too shines. I was born in a place filled with wonderful suns and received my light from them.”