WTI Magazine #43    2014 September, 17
Author : Enrico De Iulis      Translation by:

In addition to their unquestionable skill and fame, some artists of the XX century also have in their personal stories something emblematic and representative of the lives of many unknown Italians with similar fates. Guido Andlovitz is one of these. Born in 1900 in Grado, near Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the early twentieth century - like many other citizens of those places - he often finds to be a war refugee in other Italian cities.

At the outbreak of World War I, the Andlovitz family moves to Florence and then, at the end of the war, Guido goes to live in Milan where he will attend the Polytechnic and then the Academy of Brera. In 1923 he graduates with honors, with a 9 and a half out of 10 in decoration which will be the preview for his future fame. Joining him in the same year of course, stand out names like Guido Frette (future magnate of interior design), Luigi Figini and Giuseppe Terragni, leading architects of rationalist movement.

In 1925, thanks to the contact with the architect Piero Portaluppi, his professor at the Polytechnic, Guido Andlovitz begins his collaboration with the SCI Società Ceramica Italiana di Laveno (Laveno Ceramic Society), a partnership that will last well over the 60's. While Gio Ponti is busy updating Richard Ginori's production, Andlovitz takes care of Laveno's new image and products, making it immediately leap to the foreground in the production of artistic ceramics and china in the 20s.

The II International Exhibition of Decorative Arts at the Royal Villa of Monza is the stage of the rebirth of porcelain for domestic use, with brand new shapes, innovative graphics and a global re-launch that will bring every Italian to have services of pottery and porcelain of that shape in his own home. The brim of the plate disappears to an innovative "daisy" form; new curves for prototypes of the vases from now on will be called "Monza" from the place where they were exposed for the first time.

The Andlovitz decor is definitely sign of his times, has its roots in some Russian Suprematist graphics, but also in a certain American deco and even in a taste of comics that will become the emblem of the 20's and 30's with famous characters like Mr. Bonaventura.

There are clean lines and curves alternating with straight lines just shaded by screen printing. Stylized landscapes, small blocks recognizable in the most famous Italian monuments, but renewed by Andlovitz in their concise capacity and colorful graphics.

The theme of the Sea; of the coast both lacustrine reminiscent of Laveno and maritime reminiscent of his native Grado; the theme of trees and architectural elements politely shown on porcelain, on plates and bowls and on the vertical walls of the coffee pots or vases and white pitchers: all these elements become the real Andlovitz style. The playful and ironic decor alternates to the formal research that advances in time with increasingly sophisticated geometries, always avant-garde.

Andlovitz has contributed to the change and to the training of the taste of the Italian people, producing objects that everyone daily used: he has been one of the first designers/decorators who brought our country from the XIX century taste to highest level Italy's industrial design, which after a century is still a source of national pride.