Gae Aulenti

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Dates of Birth and Death

December 4, 1927-October 31, 2012

Education

  • Milan Polytechnic University, 1954

Years of practice

1954–2012 (estimated)

Affiliations/Firms

  • Gae Aulenti Architetti Associati

Major projects

  • Olivetti Shop, 1966, Paris
  • Fiat showroom, 1969-70, Zurich
  • Fiat showroom, 1970, Brussels
  • Fiat showroom, 1970, Turin
  • Aulenti Office, 1974, Milan
  • Aulenti Country Home, 1975, Assisi
  • Musée d’Orsay, 1981-1986, Paris
  • Permanent collections galleries, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1982-1985, Paris
  • Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, 1985-2004, Barcelona
  • Palazzo Grassi (restoration), 1985-1986, Venice
  • Asian Art Museum, 1996-2003, San Francisco
  • Italian Culture Institute, 2006, Tokyo

Awards, honors and press

  • Milan Triennale 1st Prize, Italian Pavillion, 1964
  • Praemium Imperiale, 1991
  • French Légion d’honneur, 1999
  • Career Prize, Milan Triennale, 2012

Related websites


Keywords

April folding chair, Aulenti, Italian, Italy, Milan, Musée d'Orsay, Neo Liberty, Politecnico, Polytechnic University Milan, Sanmarco table, Zanotta, commercial, industrial, institutional, interiors, residential

Biography

Early life and education

Gaetana “Gae” (pronounced “guy”) Aulenti was born December 4, 1927, in Palazzolo dello Stella, a small municipality of Udine, in the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.  She told the New York Times that despite her parents’ hope that she would be a “nice society” girl, she defied them and studied architecture at the Milan Polytechnic University. She graduated, one of two women in her class of twenty, in 1954. After graduating, she became a celebrated industrial and lighting designer in postwar Italy, and worked as art director at the avant-garde design magazine Casabella-Continuità. Through colleagues at the magazine, Aulenti joined the “Neo Liberty” movement, which rejected the modernist tenets of such figures as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier in favor of traditional building methods coupled with individual stylistic expression.

Career in Architecture

After graduating, Gae established her own practice in Milan.  In addition to teaching architecture in Milan and Venice, she executed furniture, lighting, and set designs, many of which were used by the most celebrated Italian design and opera houses of the day. One of her most celebrated designs, her tavola con ruote, or table with wheels, of 1980, now resides at MoMA in New York. Her “April” folding chair (1964) and “Sanmarco” table (1984), both designed for Zanotta, also contributed to her reputation as an industrial designer. Her architecture and interior design of many stores and showrooms for several major Italian businesses, including Fiat, Olivetti, and Adrienne Vittadini, were also celebrated.

In architecture, her best-known project is the conversion of Paris’s Gare d’Orsay into the Musée d’Orsay for the display of late 19th- and early 20th-century art.  She was chosen to design the converted museum in 1981. Utilizing wire mesh and rough stone to create separate gallery spaces, Aulenti maintained the Beaux-Arts character of the space by highlighting the glass barrel vault, the decorative end-wall near the entrance with the monumental clock, and the original support beams.  Though the finished building, opened in 1986, received mixed critical reviews, Aulenti was satisfied with her observation that “20,000 people were standing in line each day waiting to get in.”

Aulenti’s work on the Musée d’Orsay led to commissions for several other museums, including the interior design of the permanent collection galleries at the Centre Pompidou; the restoration of an exhibition hall in Barcelona to become the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC); and the conversion of San Francisco’s former Main Library into the Asian Art Museum in 2001.

Major Buildings and Projects

  • Olivetti Shop, 1966, Paris
  • Fiat showroom, 1969-70, Zurich
  • Fiat showroom, 1970, Brussels
  • Fiat showroom, 1970, Turin
  • Aulenti Office, 1974, Milan
  • Aulenti Country Home, 1975, Assisi
  • Musée d’Orsay, 1981-1986, Paris
  • Permanent collections galleries, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1982-1985, Paris
  • Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, 1985-2004, Barcelona
  • Palazzo Grassi (restoration), 1985-1986, Venice
  • Asian Art Museum, 1996-2003, San Francisco
  • Italian Culture Institute, 2006, Tokyo

Press and Awards

  • Milan Triennale 1st Prize, Italian Pavillion, 1964
  • Praemium Imperiale, 1991
  • French Légion d’honneur, 1999
  • Career Prize, Milan Triennale, 2012

Institutional Affiliations

  • Instructor/Lecturer, University of Venice, 1960-1962
  • Instructor/Lecturer, Polytechnic University (Politecnico), Milan, 1964