60s Massimo Vignelli 526G table lamp for Arteluce

Designer
Massimo Vignelli
Manufacturer
Arteluce
Period
1960s
Origin
Itlay
Material
Chrome, plexi shade
Color
White
Code
0121089VT
Condition
Good and working condition consistent with age and use.
Dimensions
41cm x 60,5cm (h)
WS
A - D
Price
Sold, located Barendrecht

Large table or floor lamp Model 526/Grande. This monumental lamp has a chrome plated metal base and a white plexi shade. The lamp uses 3 light bulbs for beautiful spherical light. This object is one of the very few lights from Arteluce that was not designed by Gino Sarfatti. Massimo Vignelli was a good friend of Sarfatti at the time, Sarfatti was the supervising director of Arteluce and lead Arteluce to the top of light manufacturing and designing. Massimo Vignelli was born in Milan in 1931. While still a student, he designed lighting for renowned Murano glassmaker Venini. Having married Lella Vignelli in 1957, the pair established the Lella and Massimo Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan in 1960, focusing on office accessories, home products, graphics, and furniture. The studio’s clients included Pirelli and Olivetti, among other. In 1965, the Vignellis moved to Chicago.

The Vignellis can be credited with helping to bring contemporary Italian design to the US. Their shared aesthetic celebrates balance, elegance, and simplicity, and embraces the notion that a designer should be able to design anything and everything. Notable projects include, among others, the stackable Knoll Handkerchief Chair (1982–87); colorful, molded melamine Heller Stacking Dishes (1964); and the 1972 New York City subway map. In addition to their design work, both have taught, lectured, written, and served on a variety of juries and boards throughout their careers. Their work has been exhibited internationally in a variety of exhibitions, including, in 1980, a retrospective at New York’s Parsons School of Design. In 1982, the Vignellis were awarded the AIGA Gold Medal. In 2008, the couple donated their complete design archive to the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York; the archive is now housed in a 2010-erected building of their own design, the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

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