Gino Sarfatti Pendant Model 2103, Arteluce, 1958
View Similar Items
Gino Sarfatti Pendant Model 2103, Arteluce, 1958
About the Item
- Creator:Gino Sarfatti (Designer),Arteluce (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Diameter: 13.78 in (35 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1958
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Roosendaal, NL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU111826227623
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.
Find a collection of vintage Gino Sarfatti lighting now on 1stDibs.
Arteluce
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.
- Pair of Gino Sarfatti Glass Pendant Lights Model 2095/1 by Arteluce, Italy, 1958By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Los Angeles, CAPair of Gino Sarfatti Pendants Model 2095/1 by Arteluce, Italy, 1958. Blown glass pendant lights with clear glass globe shades, aluminum hardware and long cords. These pendants do no...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
$1,320 Sale Price20% Off - 1 of 35 Gino Sarfatti Pendants Model 2095/1 by Arteluce, Italy, 1958By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Echt, NLBeautiful original model 2095/1 pendants in very good original condition. Designed by Gino Sarfatti in 1958. Manufactured by Arteluce, Italy. There are 35 of these pendants availa...Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti Chandelier Model 2095/5 by Arteluce, Italy, 1958By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Roosendaal, Noord BrabantVery nice chandelier model 2095/5 designed by Gino Sarfatti, manufactured by Arteluce, Italy, 1958. This nice and impressive chandelier has a rare white ceiling plate and original wh...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Pendant Model '194/N'By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Waalwijk, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, off-white pendant '194/N', metal, wire, Italy, 1950 A beautiful pendant in a natural colored metal made in Italy around 1950. This pendant designed by li...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- Gino Sarfatti model 2095/9 ceiling lamp for Arteluce, Italy, 1958By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Milan, ITGino Sarfatti model 2095/9 ceiling lamp for Arteluce, Italy, 1958 Original wiring and labels.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum, Metal
$8,789 Sale Price33% Off - Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Model 2095/9 Ceiling Lamp , Italy, 1958By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Naples, ITCeiling lamp Mod. 2095/9 designed by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce in the 1960s, the height-adjustable diffusers are made of transparent blown glass and the structure of satinised alumi...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Aluminum