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Gino Sarfatti Italian Wall Light Pair of Triple Sconces 237/3 Mid-Century Modern

Name: Gino Sarfatti Italian Wall Light Pair of Triple Sconces 237/3 Mid-Century Modern
Brand: Gino Sarfatti
Price: 5425.74 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Gino Sarfatti (1912-1985) Pair of triple sconces model “237/3” Manufactured by Arteluce Italy, 1959 Painted iron, aluminum, glass. Measurements: 28 cm x 46 cm x 21 H cm each 11 in x 18.11 in x 8.26 H in. each. Literature: M. Romanelli, S. Severi, Gino Sarfatti. Opere scelte 1938-1973, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo, 2012, pp. 311, 413. Gino Sarfatti (September 16, 1912, Venice, Italy– March 6, 1985, Griante, Como, Italy) was an Italian who became known for his talent as a lighting designer. He was the founder of the Italian light manufacturing company Arteluce. He was born into a family of relative wealth, his father, Riccardo Sarfatti, was a prosperous Jewish food trader, and his mother, Lucia Zuccoli, was from a prominent Catholic family of Trieste. In 1930, Gino moved to Genoa to enroll in the Faculty of Aeronaval Engineering. In 1935, a sea embargo was placed on Italy by the League of Nations as a reaction to Mussolini’s government, and the Sarfatti family’s economic situation worsened considerably. At 23, Gino Sarfatti left his studies and moved to Milan, where he founded the lighting company Lumen in 1936 in partnership with Aldo Valcarenghi and Dino Mondolfi. Three years later, Sarfatti decided to part ways with his partners and founded the light manufacturing company Arteluce in February 1939. To support his vision to modernize lighting design, Gino Sarfatti quickly opened Arteluce’s first store in Milan at the centric and trendy Corso Littorio #12 location—now Corso Matteotti, and, in 1940, Arteluce participated in the VII Triennale di Milano. During this time, Arteluce also became a frequent meeting place for many of the leading Italian midcentury designers, including Franco Albini, Gianfranco Frattini, Ico Parisi, and Vittorio Viganò. But the situation in Italy was also changing and in 1943, Gino Sarfatti was forced by the racial laws of the Fascist government to leave Milan and fled with his family to Switzerland, leaving his bookkeeper and secretary, Pinuccia Azzaroni Bassani, to manage the day-to-day activities of Arteluce. Gino Sarfatti and his family returned to Milan in 1946, immediately after the Liberation. In 1950, Gino Sarfatti embarked on a transformative research journey to the United States. During his creative leave, he handed of the role of artistic director to Vittoriano Viganò, who as a result contributed his own design imprint to the brand by using metal cones and shapes to shed and project light along large arms; a feature of significance to Arteluce’s future aesthetic. In 1951, nine Arteluce models participated in the IX Triennale di Milano, and in 1952 Franco Albini included 12 Arteluce lights at the Paris exhibition of Italian Decorative Arts. In 1953, Gino Sarfatti decided that, after 14 years, his store needed a new look, thus he chose Marco Zanuso to orchestrate the reformation. In 1954 and 1955, Sarfatti received numerous international awards, including two Compasso d’Oro awards for his lamp designs for models 559 and 1055. In 1958, he designed the renowned Pendant lamp, for Arteluce. In 1962, Sarfatti decided to open a larger shop on Via della Spiga in Milan, but this time designed by Vittorio Viganò. During the decade of the 1960s, Arteluce’s business grew rapidly not only with its home lighting designs sold in Italy and internationally, but also with its custom Gino Sarfatti lighting designs for public buildings. As other important Italian designers, such as Nino Zoncada, Gustavo Pulitzer-Finale, Paolo de Poli, Pietro Chiesa, and Gio Ponti, during this time Gino Sarfatti, through Arteluce, became involved in many interior and furniture design projects for the rapidly growing industry of Italian ocean liners. By the late 1960s, the density of Arteluce’s business had grown substantially and needed a much larger managerial team. At this time, his sons and daughter-in-law joined the company, but Gino Sarfatti decided to sell Arteluce to FLOS in 1973 at the peak of its sales and profits. Gino Sarfatti retired to live in Lake Como with Angela Regiroli and their daughter Micol, where he preserved a private life away from the design community.

Creator:

Gino Sarfatti (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 8.27 in (21 cm)Width: 11.03 in (28 cm)Depth: 18.12 in (46 cm)

Materials and Techniques:

Glass,Iron

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1950-1959

Date of Manufacture:

1959

Condition:

Seller Location:

Barcelona, ES

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU2374321100212

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Shop All Gino Sarfatti

Gino Sarfatti

That a spiky, futuristic chandelier named “Sputnik,” which was highly suggestive of the Soviet satellite of the same name, designed by an Italian engineer could predate the space age and the satellite’s launch by a few decades is the stuff of legend. But in 1939, Venetian-born Gino Sarfatti channeled his obsession with light and expert engineering skills into a design so bold it predicted the future. He would go on to design around 700 lighting products in his lifetime — each table lamp, wall light, pendant and chandelier superb and unorthodox in shape.

Sarfatti’s singular focus on creating opulent lighting designs that were rational in their use of resources makes him one of the most innovative lighting designers in history. He was studying to be an aeronautical engineer at the University of Genoa when his family’s financial troubles led him to drop out and move to Milan to help. During this time, he built a lamp for a friend using a coffee machine’s electric components and a glass vase. This exercise sparked his fascination with lighting, and he went on to found Arteluce in 1939. What followed was a period of working with skilled artisans and tinkering with materials instead of sketching. The self-taught designer soon established himself as a creator of provocative, sculptural luxury lighting. Through the company, he collaborated with some of the 20th century’s most influential designers, such as Vittoriano Viganò, who worked on Arteluce lighting between 1946 and 1960. In the 1950s and ’70s, Franco Albini, Franca Helg, Ico Parisi and Massimo Vignelli all contributed designs.

Sarfatti used resources mindfully and injected functionality into everything he designed. His light fixtures were lightweight, easy to take apart and reassemble and could be affordably repaired. This marriage of utilitarianism and glamour lent Sarfatti’s designs a clean, minimal yet arresting splendor, based on their graphical forms and construction.

After World War II, Sarfatti embraced new wiring technologies and materials like plexiglass, such as his 1972 project with Carlo Mollino that filled the Teatro Regio in Turin with hundreds of plexiglass pipes. In 1973, Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS. His foresight, invention and fearlessness as a designer are revered to this day.

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