At the Istituto Statale d’Arte of Monza is where Anty first discovers the cultural world of Design, after which she begins practicing in this world by rigorously applying the methodology of the history of design and subsequently producing various studies and publications.

 

History/Stories

From her first works, with A. Grassi: Atlante del design italiano 1940-1980 (1980), to Italia del design. Trent'anni di dibattiti (1986) which gave her the opportunity to get acquainted with and reflect on the ADI, the historic Association of Italian Industrial Design (of which she has been a long-standing member), she has broadened her field of inquiry with a series of other publications: Il design del mobile italiano (2000), Storia del disegno industriale italiano (1993), and the curation of Dizionario del design italiano (1995).  In addition, she published L’anima dell’industria. Un secolo di disegno industriale nel Milanese (1996).

In 1982, she curated the section called “Protodesign” for the exhibition “The Thirties. Art and Culture in Italy”, where she studied the issues between designing and what she decides to call mechanized craftsmanship.

 

Her friendship with Lillo Mangano, the cataloguing and curation of his collection (from 2002) brought her to study the design of Nordic countries and consequently publish Design finlandese, la collezione Mangano (2006). This also brought her to curate exhibitions and participate to conferences on this topic.

 

Typologies/Products

Specific typologies successively attracted her attention, therefore, with Tersilla Giacobone and Paola Guidi, in 1989, she studied the issues of “From the electric house to the electronic house”, a theme touched upon again in 2016 with Qualche appunto intorno allo storico mondo del bianco made in Italy, la case history Zanussi (2016). She also studied the production of bent metal, analyzed in Flessibili splendori. I mobili in tubolare metallico. Il caso Columbus with Alberto Bassi and Tiziana Occleppo in 1998.

 

The study of sports equipment brought her to plan and curate the event and exhibition, with Alfonso Grassi, entitled “Sport and Design, planning the competition”, which after its debut for Turin Design Capital at Ivrea, was reproposed in 2008 in Beijing, in Toronto in 2009 and in Johannesburg in 2010.

 

Entrepreneurs and Designers

Corporate Design is also a very relevant part of Anty’s research. On this subject, she has produced publications and the organization of company museums and archives: La fabbrica verticale e il Gruppo Industriale Busnelli: 25 anni a Misinto (1998), and the organization of the archives and museums of Italtel (with A.L. Colombo), FiMaG- the Guzzini Group companies (with Tiziana Occleppo). Furthermore, she has documented the paths of individual designers with numerous contributions to essays and exhibitions on designers and the monographs on Antonia Campi and Giovanna Talocci.

 

She directed the Italian Designers book series with Gillo Dorfles for Edizioni Laterza and published the volumes dedicated to Bruno Munari, Anna Castelli Ferrieri and Giuseppe Pagano.

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Female Design

Anty has devoted a particular interest to the contribution to design by women artists, artisans and designers. Her studies in this particular sector began in 2001 with the exhibition “From the lace to the motorcycle” (with Tiziana Occleppo) promoted by the UDI and by the city of Ferrara (and subsequently Catania; the exhibition and event “The ladys’ bridge”, conceived by Mariateresa Chirico and carried out by both at the Spazio Pria in Biella (2003-2004). In 2008, with Luisa Bocchetto, she curated “Dcomedesign. The hand, the mind and the heart” for the Torino World Design Capital, where she also realized her first survey on women designers. In the meantime, she participated to numerous initiatives and conferences to value the women’s creativity and craftsmanship.

 

In 2009, alongside Luisa Bocchietto, Loredana Sarti e Patrizia Scarzella, she founded the association DcomeDesign, which she presides.

 

In 2011, she curates the exhibition entitled “Nientedimeno/Nothingless. The strength of female design”, which is dedicated to the production of Design items by women. In 2013, in occasion of the European days of the Art trade, in collaboration with the Fondazione Cologni, she curates (with Mariateresa Chirico) “Women in the workshop. The presence of women artisans/protodesginers/designers/entrepreneurs in Lombardy from 1906 to 2012” at Palazzo Morando in Milan. This is followed by “Lady C” in Faenza at Argillà 2014, dedicated to the world of ceramics. In 2015, she organized a travelling exhibition called “Antò” (dedicated to Campi and Ravagli) with a relative volume published. This is followed by a monograph dedicated to the ceramist Muky published in 2016.

 

She also collaborates with the enciclopedia delle donne.it (the encyclopedia of women) and for this same editor she contributed to the volume La signorina Kores e le altre, Donne e lavoro a Milano, (1950-1970), and successively published an essay in 2017 entitled Design. Progettazione e creatività per il disegno industriale (with Mariateresa Chirico).

 

From 2009 she is a member of the Italian Association of Historians – A/I/S/Design: alongside the President Raimonda Riccini and Valeria Bucchetti in the planning and realization of the conference “ Angelica and Bradamante” (June 2016), of which the “Acts” was published (2017).

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The Triennale

Being interested in the decorative and applied arts, Anty has retraced their presence in Italy, especially through the history of the Triennale Institution (with “History and chronicle of the Triennale”, 1978) of which she has also curated Libro bianco, published in 1974 by the Council for the Triennale.

In 1982, she curated the Catalogo generale della XVI Triennale di Milano and in 1991 she participated to the conference “Life between things and nature: the project and the environmental challenge”, in preparation of the XVIII Triennale (June). In 1994 she is then appointed (with Piero De Amicis) to plan and curate the “Gallery of the Triennale”, presented at the XIX edition of the Institution which will then be uploaded online in 2005.

 

In 1998 she was called to be a member of the scientific committee of the review for the “Autobiography of the Triennale”, as the curator for the Historical Gallery of the institution; in 1999 she curated, with Luciano Caramel, the review “Lucio Fontana, the Triennale, the light” and she collaborated to the realization of the video on the history of the institution; in 2000 she curated a volume and a CD Rom dedicated to the Historical Gallery of the Triennale (2001). In 2001, with Tiziana Occleppo, she curated, “Un percorso attraverso il patrimonio industriale italiano dalle arti decorative al design” published by the institution, in occasion of the event “The city and design”.

 

From 2012 to 2014 she was nominated by the city of Milan to the Board of Directors of the Foundation of the Triennale Design Museum of Milan and from 2015 she was nominated by the board to the Scientific Committee of the Triennale Design Museum.