Arteluce (1936)

Arteluce was established in 1939 by the young Venetian designer Gino Sarfatti. Forced by political upheaval to abandon his aeronautical engineering degree in Genoa and move to Milan, Sarfatti embarked on a career in lighting design. Arguably it is because he was self-taught that Sarfatti immersed himself in the full lifecycle of the design process, from conception to production, collaborating with artisans and architects to create stronger, lighter, affordable modernist lamps.

During the Second World War, Sarfatti fled to Switzerland, returning to Milan after the war to restart his company, and in 1951 Arteluce’s first retail outlet opened in central Milan.

Arteluce quickly established itself as a successful and visionary lighting design company. Sarfatti designed over 400 lamps in his lifetime, and his work is known for its minimalist yet expressive aesthetic. In the mid-1950s he began to work with Plexiglas, and in the ‘70s he pioneered the use of halogen bulbs. The ultra-minimal Model 1063 (1954) influenced Italian floor lamp design for years to come and was awarded the prestigious ‘Grand Prix’ at the Milan Triennale. That year, Arteluce was also awarded the ADI Compasso d’Oro for Model 559 and the following year for Model 1055.

In the 1960s, Arteluce produced lights designed by some of the most famous names of the period such as Franco Albini, Ico Parisi and Massimo Vignelli. The lighting installation for the Teatro Regio opera house in Turin in 1972 (one of Arteluce's last projects) comprised hundreds of pendant Plexiglas tubes installed under the direction of the architect Carlo Mollino. Thois was considered one of their greatest achievements. In 1973, Sarfatti sold his business to Flos and retired to Lake Como. Many Arteluce creations are still in production today, and several original models are to be found in museums such as MoMA in New York. Sarfatti’s designs are experiencing a renaissance amongst collectors following the first retrospective exhibition of his work at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan in 2012.