VICO MAGISTRETTI ‘DALÙ’ TABLE LAMP FOR ARTEMIDE

Vico Magistretti designed the 'Dalù' lamp for ARTEMIDE in 1969.  These early examples retain their original cable management springs as well as the often absent clip-on light bulb diffusers.  Both are in remarkably good condition considering their age.  [Offered/priced individually.]

VICO MAGISTRETTI was born in Milan in 1920, the son of architect Pier Giulio Magistretti.  He studied in Italy and Switzerland during WWII and graduated from the Politecnico di Milan in 1945.  While in Switzerland, he met architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers.  Under the influence of Rogers' humanist ideas for the reconstruction of postwar Italy, Magistretti began a career in urban design at his father's firm in Milan.  He worked on the realization of the experimental suburb QT8, designing and building its famed round church, Santa Maria Nascente.  He also collaborated on the planning of several of its working-class neighborhoods, including an estate for Pirelli workers.  Their design stands out even today for its human scale and its use of green space.

In the 1950's Magistretti moved into the field of furniture mass-production.  He enjoyed successful stints as a designer with many prominent Italian and Scandinavian firms—ARTEMIDE, DE PADOVA, FLOU, FRITZ HANSEN, KARTELL, and SCHIFFINI among them.  His first break-out success came with the world-famous 'Carimate' chair produced by the Italian furniture manufacturer CASSINA.  Created in 1959, the chair combined rural simplicity with urban sophistication and was a best-seller for years.   Magistretti began to work directly with CASSINA in 1960.  Over the next three decades, his work there produced a number of classics, including the 'Maralunga' sofa (1973) and the 'Nuvola Rossa' bookcase (1977).  These items combined an almost functionalist simplicity with the smooth lines of Italian style.

Magistretti's long collaboration with CASSINA was based on his twin abilities to experiment and to work directly with artisans.  Never formally trained as a designer, he adopted an unorthodox and intensely practical approach to collaboration.  Perhaps consequently very few of his ideas went unproduced.  Magistretti had a close relationship with CASSINA's head, Cesare Cassina, designing his luxurious villa in the town of Carimate, near Como, in 1964-65.

Magistretti's works have been shown in the most important international museums in Europe, USA, and Japan.  His works are in the collections of MoMA in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.  Magistretti has been the recipient of many awards—the Gold Medal at the 1951 Triennale, the Grand Prix at the 1954 Triennale, two Compasso d'Oro awards in the years 1967 and 1979, and the Gold Medal of the Chartered Society of Industrial Artists & Designers in 1986, among others.  He taught for 20 years at the Royal College of Arts in London, and was nominated as a royal designer.  He died in 2006.  His legacy is overseen by the Vico Magistretti Foundation.

ARTEMIDE was founded in 1960 by Ernesto Gismondi and Sergio Mazza in a suburb of Milan.  It specializes in the manufacture of lighting designed by designers and architects.  Famous ARTEMIDE productions include the 'Tizio' desk lamp designed by Richard Sapper (1972) and the 'Tolomeo' desk lamp designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina (1986).  Other noted designers collaborators include Mario Botta, Sir Norman Foster, Ettore Sottsass, Enzo Mari, Neil Poulton, Karim Rashid, Giò Ponti, Zaha Hadid, Luigi Serafini, Cini Boeri, and Carlotta de Bevilacqua.

ARTEMIDE has won numerous awards including the Compasso d'Oro in 1995 and the European Design Prize in 1997.  In 2006, two "Best of The Best" Red Dot awards went rrespectively to lamps by designer Neil Poulton and by architects Herzog & de Meuron.  Carlotta de Bevilacqua's 'Cata' lamp for ARTEMIDE took the IF Product Design Award in 2013.  The permanent collections of the Musée des Artes Décoratifs de Montreal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York City, and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome hold the work of ARTEMIDE.