The lighting maker Arteluce was one of the companies at the heart of the creative explosion in postwar Italian design. The firm’s founder and guiding spirit, Gino Sarfatti (1912–85), was an incessant technical and stylistic innovator who almost single-handedly reinvented the chandelier as a modernist lighting form.
Sarfatti attended the University of Genoa to study aeronautical engineering but was forced to drop out when his father’s company went out of business. His mechanical instincts led him to turn his attention to lighting design — and he founded Arteluce as a small workshop in Milan in 1939. Sarfatti’s father was a Jew, so the family fled to Switzerland in 1943, but after the war — largely thanks to Sarfatti’s insistence on efficiency of design and manufacture — Arteluce quickly established itself as a top firm.
Though Sarfatti continued as chief designer through the 1950s and ’60s, he also enlisted other designers such as Franco Albini and Massimo Vignelli to contribute work. Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS — a rival Italian lighting maker — in 1973 and retired to pursue a more traditional avocation: collecting and dealing rare postage stamps.
Sarfatti is regarded by many collectors as a pioneer of minimalist design. He pared down his lighting works to their essentials, focusing on practical aspects such as flexibility of use. His most famous light, the 2097 chandelier, is a brilliant example of reductive modernist design, featuring a central cylinder from which branches numerous supporting fixtures extending like spokes on a wheel.
Similarly, Sarfatti's 566 table lamp is a simple canister, able to be raised or lowered on a stem, holding a half-chrome bulb. Despite the marked functionality of his designs, Sarfatti did have a sprightly side: His 534 table lamp, with its cluster of rounded enameled shades, resembles a vase full of flowers, the Sputnik chandelier (model 2003) was inspired by fireworks and the brightly colored plastic disks of the 2072 chandelier look like lollipops. No matter the style, Sarfatti concentrated first and foremost on the character of light created — and any Arteluce lamp is a modernist masterpiece.
Find vintage Arteluce table lamps, chandeliers, floor lamps and other lighting on 1stDibs.
Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Illuminated Wall-Mounted Display Console
By Arteluce, Gino Sarfatti
Located in Waalwijk, NL
Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, display console, metal, glass, brass, Italy, 1970s Two vertical wall mounts in black metal hold a glass shelf. At the end of the fixtures two adjustable ...
Metal, Brass
Model 211 Wall lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, 1950s
By Arteluce, Gino Sarfatti
Located in Rotterdam, NL
Wall lamp Model 211 designed by Gino Sarfatti in 1955 and manufactured by Arteluce. Model 211 consists of an aluminum base with a screen that rotates around a tubular light bulb of ...
Aluminum
Model 50 Wall Lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, 1968
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Rotterdam, NL
Off-white lacquered Model 50 wall lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, designed in 1968 and manufactured in the 1970s. Marco Romanelli and Sandra Severi describe the wall lamp in '...
Metal
Gino Sarfatti Wall Lamps Model 237/3 Arteluce, 1959
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Roosendaal, Noord Brabant
Pair of wall lamps model 237/3 designed by Gino Sarfatti, manufactured by Arteluce, Italy 1959. This pair of wall lamps are an iconic and famous design by Sarfatti. There are many di...
Metal, Aluminum
Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Mod. 36 Wall Lamp, Italy 1955
By Arteluce, Gino Sarfatti
Located in Naples, IT
Wall sconce Mod. "36" in chromed metal designed by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Italy 1955. The lamp is structured with a horizontal chromed arm connected to a square metal plate, wh...
Metal
Gino Sarfatti Wall Lamp Sconce for Arteluce, Italy 1950s
By Arteluce, Gino Sarfatti
Located in Roma, IT
Spectacular and iconic sconce designed by Gino Sarfatti and Archimede Seguso and produced by Arteluce in Italy during the 1950s. This incredibly elegant and unique sconce is in fabu...
Steel, Chrome
Gino Sarfatti 228 wall lamps Arteluce Italy 1957
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Roosendaal, Noord Brabant
Rare pair of model 228 wall lamps designed by Gino Sarfatti and manufactured by Arteluce in Italy in 1957. This extraordinary green colour reminds us of the flourishing Alfa Romeo Giulietta from the same year, whizzing across the Italian countryside. It’s these colour memories where we fell in love with and cherish. It could be Sarfatti once saw a car passing by and was struck by its vivid colour. These lamps have a minimalistic but strong and iconic design. The slight frosted glass diffuser sits in a metal ring. The socket is held by a metal cylinder with metal screws that are visible. The ring is attached to the wall plate. In very good original condition and rewired. Kindly note that the listed price is for the pair of 2 lamps. Literature; M. Romanelli, S. Severi, Gino Sarfatti opere scelte 1938; 1973 Silvana Editore 2012, page 447 and Arteluce vintage...
Metal
Large Flush Mount by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Model 155, circa 1950s
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Wiesbaden, Hessen
Rare and large lacquered metal and brass flush mount by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Italy, circa 1950s, (Model 155) Socket: 3 x e27 or e26 (US) for standard screw bulbs. In a very go...
Metal, Brass
$1,563
H 7.88 in W 13 in D 9.06 in
Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Vintage Double Wall Light Model 237/2, 1960s
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Morazzone, Varese
Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Double Wall Lights Model 237/2 in Glass Metal, 1970s Original vintage wall light, model 237/2 by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Milano. Two spherical diffuse...
Metal
Gino Sarfatti wall lamp model 3 Arteluce Italy 1950
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Roosendaal, Noord Brabant
Rare Model 3 wall lamp designed by Gino Sarfatti and manufactured by Arteluce Italy 1950. This wall lamp by Gino Sarfatti is super rare, and you hardly ever find it for sale. It's go...
Metal, Aluminum, Chrome
Wall Sconce 194n by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
Beautiful extending arm wall sconce designed by Gino Sarfatti and produced by Arteluce circa 1958. It is made of a brass multi part arm and...
Aluminum, Brass
Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Model 238/2 Wall Lamp, Italy 1960s
By Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce
Located in Naples, IT
Stunning three-light wall lamp model 238/2 by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce 1950s. In excellent original condition. The brass wall plate with arms bent to form circles houses translucen...
Metal
Rare Gino Sarfatti Wall Scone for Arteluce
By Gino Sarfatti
Located in Munich, DE
Rare model signed with paper label.