Gino Sarfatti - Design New York Tuesday, December 7, 2021 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie kreo, Paris
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Roberto Aloi, Esempi di decorazione moderna di tutto il mondo: Illuminazione d'oggi, Milan, 1956, p. 180
    Marco Romanelli and Sandra Severi, Gino Sarfatti: Selected Works 1938-1973, Milan, 2012, pp. 260, 484

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present ceiling light, designed by Gino Sarfatti in 1954, makes a radical proclamation in favor of form. Twin fluorescent lights are suspended from a reactor by tubular steel. The clarity of the design corroborates Sarfatti’s ingenuity as a designer and recalls his formal training as an aeronautical engineer. The present 3026 model represents a further development of the 1063 light, also designed in 1954, displaying a single fluorescent cylinder, standing as a floor lamp, partially encased in aluminum. With the ceiling lights, Sarfatti fully embraced the shape and luminosity of the fluorescents, refusing to conceal or adorn them. During the postwar period, Sarfatti moved increasingly closer to the pure form of the light source itself, intervening minimally with supporting structures. The 3026 model was patented in 1955.

  • Artist Biography

    Gino Sarfatti

    Italian • 1912 - 1985

    Rising above the devastation of World War II, post-war Italian design reached new heights of productivity and ingenuity, particularly in the realm of lighting. Gino Sarfatti is among the most celebrated lighting designers from this fruitful period. Before founding his company Arteluce in 1939, Sarfatti studied aeronautical engineering. He brought the inventiveness of a self-taught outsider to the field of lighting design, while his mechanical background lent lightness and ingenuity of construction. Poetic underpinnings are also evident in lamps such as model no. 1034 (sometimes referred to as the "Vine" lamp), which features a nearly 8' twisting brass stem graced with nine delicate, articulating white shades like buds on a flower.

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Property from an East Coast Collection

97

Ceiling light, model no. 3026/40

circa 1954
Painted brass, painted steel, fluorescent bulbs.
6 3/4 x 47 3/4 x 7 in. (17.1 x 121.3 x 17.8 cm)
Manufactured by Arteluce, Milan, Italy.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $12,600

Contact Specialist

DesignNewYork@phillips.com
212-940-1268

Design

New York Auction 7 December 2021