Gae Aulenti Sistema
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Chrome
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Metal, Aluminum, Chrome
Vintage 1970s Italian Modern Table Lamps
Aluminum, Chrome, Iron
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal, Brass
People Also Browsed
Mid-20th Century Floor Lamps
Metal, Chrome
2010s Brazilian Organic Modern Armchairs
Wicker
2010s Brazilian Organic Modern Armchairs
Wicker
2010s South African Modern Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Aluminum, Wire
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Brass, Metal
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Nickel
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Metal, Chrome
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
Elm
2010s American Modern Sofas
Mahogany
21st Century and Contemporary American Scandinavian Modern Wall Lights a...
Gold, Brass
Vintage 1960s German Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Mohair, Foam, Wood
Antique 19th Century French Louis XVI Chaise Longues
Fabric, Wood
Vintage 1930s French Art Deco Daybeds
Leather, Mohair, Mahogany
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Wood, Bouclé
Recent Sales
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Iron, Aluminum, Steel, Chrome
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Aluminum, Metal, Chrome
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Metal, Chrome, Aluminum
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Chrome, Aluminum, Metal
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Metal, Aluminum, Chrome
Vintage 1970s Italian Floor Lamps
Metal
Vintage 1970s Italian Floor Lamps
Metal
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Gae Aulenti for sale on 1stDibs
The Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti will forever be best remembered for her work with museums, in particular her 1980–86 renovation of a Beaux Arts Paris train station to create the galleries of the Musée d’Orsay. Aulenti — whose first name, short for Gaetana, is pronounced “guy” — should also be recalled for her tough intellectual spirit and for working steadily when few women found successful architectural careers in postwar Italy.
After she graduated from the Milan Polytechic in 1954, Aulenti opened an architectural office. She also joined the staff of the progressive architectural magazine Casabella, whose editorial line was that the establishment, orthodox modernism of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, had outlived it usefulness. When their movement for fresh approaches to architecture and design received a sympathetic hearing, Aulenti found patrons — most prominently Gianni Agnelli, of Fiat, who later employed her to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice for use as an arts exhibition space.
Commissions for showrooms and other corporate spaces brought Aulenti to furniture design. She felt that furniture should never dominate a room. Her chairs and sofas — low-slung, with rounded enameled metal frames and ample seats — and tables, particularly her 1972 marble Jumbo coffee table for Knoll, project solidity and sturdiness. In lighting design, however, Aulenti is bravura.
Each work has a marvelous sculptural presence. Pieces such as her Pipistrello table lamp and Quadrifoglio pendant are a perfect marriage of organically shaped glass and high-tech fixtures. Others have a futuristic elegance — and some even have a touch of personality. Aulenti’s Pileino and La Ruspa table lamps each look almost like little robots. Her lighting pieces are an artful grace note in the career of a woman who believed in strength.
Find vintage Gae Aulenti armchairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Finding the Right floor-lamps for You
The modern floor lamp is an evolution of torchères — tall floor candelabras that originated in France as a revolutionary development in lighting homes toward the end of the 17th century. Owing to the advent of electricity and the introduction of new materials as a part of lighting design, floor lamps have taken on new forms and configurations over the years.
In the early 1920s, Art Deco lighting artisans worked with dark woods and modern metals, introducing unique designs that still inspire the look of modern floor lamps developed by contemporary firms such as Luxxu.
Popular mid-century floor lamps include everything from the enchanting fixtures by the Italian lighting artisans at Stilnovo to the distinctly functional Grasshopper floor lamp created by Scandinavian design pioneer Greta Magnusson-Grossman to the Paracarro floor lamp by the Venetian master glass workers at Mazzega. Among the more celebrated names in mid-century lighting design are Milanese innovators Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, who, along with their eldest brother, Livio, worked for their own firm as architects and designers. While Livio departed the practice in 1952, Achille and Pier Giacomo would go on to design the Arco floor lamp, the Toio floor lamp and more for legendary lighting brands such as FLOS.
Today’s upscale interiors frequently integrate the otherworldly custom lighting solutions created by a wealth of contemporary firms and designers such as Spain’s Masquespacio, whose Wink floor lamps integrate gold as well as fabric fringes.
Visual artists and industrial designers have a penchant for floor lamps, possibly because they’re so often a clever marriage of design and the functions of lighting. A good floor lamp can change the mood of any room while adding a touch of elegance to your entire space. Find yours now on 1stDibs.