Gino Sarfatti. Designing Light

Gino Sarfatti. Designing light is the companion volume to the exhibition of the Triennale Design Museum dedicated to Gino Sarfatti: a precious and rare figure in the world of Italian design between the second half of the thirties and the fifties.

Founder, together with Maurizio Tempestini, of the company Arteluce, Sarfatti broke new ground in the field of lighting, successfully combining the roles of designer and entrepreneur. He developed a unique way of seeing and revisiting forms and materials, paying careful attention to both aesthetic and functional details. Table lamps that rotate in space, with sliding movements similar to those of scientific equipment, static objects with dynamic designs; lights that transform shelves into desks, using them as bases for support, mechanical games with cross-braced supports, cubes that diffuse light in three different directions, lightshades reminiscent of an elegant woman’s hat, and small spotlights and knobs that help direct the light and the Compasso d’Oro 1955 with the 1055 / S, perhaps the first lamp sold in a box: a highly modular kit with fully directable light.

Gino Sarfatti, designer of a discreet light that reaches everywhere. Dedicated to him and his work this book, which traces the history of both, is accompanied by presentations by Silvana Annicchiarico, Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, Claudio De Albertis, Manolo De Giorgi, Piero Gandini and Roberto Sarfatti.