"Acrilica / 281" table light by Joe Colombo and Gianni Colombo, 1962 for O-LUCE

Conspicuous, beautiful and bare, the Acrilica table lamp, produced by Cesare "Joe" Colombo (1930–71) and his brother Gianni, is a high watermark of 1960s Italian lighting. Created two years after Colombo opened his own studio, the 1962 design — his first of many for Oluce — was modeled after a counter-ceiling light in the entrance hall of the Hotel Pontinental in Sardinia. The Acrilica, named for its incorporation of plexiglas, or acrylic glass, would function in much the same way as the hotel lamp, with fluorescent light rising from an obscured source in its base toward its gracefully curving thick plastic top. Colombo’s career, which spanned architecture, avant-garde painting and other disciplines, was tragically short. But he designed all kinds of modular furniture and appliances, including chairs, storage systems and more. Milestones such as the Acrilica speak to the widely influential body of work he left behind.

The Acrilica earned Colombo the gold medal at the Milan Triennale in 1964 and later entered the permanent collections of leading art museums. Its appearance was initially astounding, as it functioned as more of a kinetic sculpture than a piece of lighting, but it was also a remarkable technical achievement. At the time, it tested the limits of plastic — when Colombo introduced the Acrilica, the material he relied on had by then been utilized for lighting in strictly thin sheets as compared to the thick, expressive transparent body that would come to define the lamp, and it was reportedly difficult to manufacture. Still produced today by Oluce, the Acrilica is both loud and simple — an arresting piece of innovative design.

He died tragically young, and his career as a designer lasted little more than 10 years. But through the 1960s, Joe Colombo proved himself one of the field’s most provocative and original thinkers, and he produced a remarkably large array of innovative chairs, table lamps and other lighting and furniture as well as product designs. Even today, the creations of Joe Colombo have the power to surprise.

Cesare “Joe” Colombo was born in Milan, the son of an electrical-components manufacturer. He was a creative child — he loved to build huge structures from Meccano pieces — and in college he studied painting and sculpture before switching to architecture.

In the early 1950s, Colombo made and exhibited paintings and sculptures as part of an art movement that responded to the new Nuclear Age, and futuristic thinking would inform his entire career. He took up design not long after his father fell ill in 1958, and he and his brother, Gianni, were called upon to run the family company.

Colombo expanded the business to include the making of plastics — a primary material in almost all his later designs. One of his first, made in collaboration with his brother, was the Acrilica table lamp (1962), composed of a wave-shaped piece of clear acrylic resin that diffused light cast by a bulb concealed in the lamp’s metal base. A year later, Colombo produced his best-known furniture design, the Elda armchair (1963): a modernist wingback chair with a womb-like plastic frame upholstered in thick leather pads. 

Portability and adaptability were keynotes of many Colombo designs, made for a more mobile society in which people would take their living environments with them. One of his most striking pieces is the Tube chair (1969). It comprises four foam-padded plastic cylinders that fit inside one another. The components, which are held together by metal clips, can be configured in a variety of seating shapes (his Additional Living System seating is similarly versatile).

Vintage Tube chairs generally sell for about $9,000 in good condition; Elda chairs for about $7,000. A small Colombo design such as the plastic Boby trolley — an office organizer on wheels, designed in 1970 — is priced in the range of $700.

As Colombo intended, his designs are best suited to a modern decor. If your tastes run to sleek, glossy Space Age looks, the work of Joe Colombo offers you a myriad of choices.

Find vintage Joe Colombo lamps, seating and other furniture for sale on 1stDibs.