Oluce (1945)

Founded in 1945 by Giuseppe Ostuni, Oluce played a key role in the development of 20th century Italian lighting design. The company grew by employing some of the most creative designers of the period. Although the 1950s brought intense competition from a rising number of modernist Italian lighting brands such as Arredoluce, Azucena and Stilnovo, Oluce’s now iconic designs enabled it to establish itself as a formidable post-War design force.

In the 1950s, one of the most famous pieces they produced was shown at the 9th Milan Triennial: a lamp designed by the architect-designer Franco Buzzi. In 1954, the architect-designer Tito Agnoli (1931-2012) designed the groundbreaking Model 255/387 Agnoli Floor Lamp: the beginning of a trend in shade-less lamps.

During the early 1960s, Oluce began collaborating with the designer Joe Colombo (1930-1971), who notably created the Model 281 Acrilica Table Lamp (1962, Gold Medal Milan Triennial 1964) and the Model 291 Spider Lamp (1965, Compasso d'Oro 1967), which also appeared in the 1972 MoMA exhibition ‘Italy: The New Domestic Landscape’.

In the early 1970s, the Verderi family took control of Oluce and appointed Vico Magistretti artistic director. His iconic designs include the Dim 333 Floor Lamp (1975), and the geometrical Model 233 Atollo Table Lamp (1977, Compasso d’Oro 1979).

In 1992, Oluce hired the new Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein (1958-2008) as Art Director, followed by Marco Romanelli in 1995, who brought in a series of international contemporary designers to update the company’s collections. Recent collaborators include Sebastian Bergne, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Toni Cordero, Toshiyuki Kita, Nendo, and Hans Peter Weidmann.

Many of Oluce’s designs have been acquired by important museums around the world, including MoMA New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf.