Electrifying Design: A Century of Lighting

Table Lamp, 1927
Chrome plated steel and glass
Donald Deskey (American, 1894–1989), designer
Deskey Vollmer, Inc., American, active 1927–1931, manufacturer
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase in honor of Caroline Heilweil, President of the Members Guild, 2000–2001, with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment, 2000.207Donald Deskey’s Table Lamp evokes the clean, modernist lines and geometric structures popular during the interwar period. Its stylized zigzag, stepped shape contrasts with the more nuanced integration of glass seen in Godefridus Johannes (Frits) Kuyken’s Model A6 Floor Lamp, on view in the exhibition. The three triangular sections mimic a traffic light. Each section of Deskey’s lamp is composed of an individual bulb in a compartment that is, in turn, fully covered with glass panels. With its diffused light creating a warm, even glow, it functions more as an art object or conversation piece than a usable task/table light.

Super Lamp, designed 1978, made ca. 1985–1989
Fiberglass, enamel, steel, rubber, and 40 watt incandescent bulbs
Martine Bedin (French, born 1957), designer
Memphis Milano, Italian, active 1981–1988, manufacturer
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by the Design Council, 2020, 2020.71Martine Bedin displays bulbs with a sense of whimsy in her Super Lamp for the Italian design collective Memphis. Resembling a streamlined toy car, the rounded base is crowned with a row of similarly shaped bulbs with different-colored socket collars. The lamp is more sculptural when unlit, but the warmth of the illuminated, exposed bulbs matches the exuberance of the design. The result is that even while displaying the bare bulb, Bedin indicates that lighting can be more than simply utilitarian—it can express ideas of play and wonder, all while maintaining its core function.

Eclisse Table Lamp, designed 1966, made ca. 1970
Lacquered aluminum and bulb
Vico Magistretti (Italian, 1920–2006), designer
Artemide, Italian, established 1960, manufacturer
Private collectionDesigned sculpturally using spheres, Eclisse reflects Vico Magistretti’s love of geometric forms and strong graphic outlines. Conceived as a bedside lamp, the design features three simple hemispheres: one functions as the base, another as the shade, and the third as a rotating eyelid or sun shield. The user can manipulate a domed shield to block out the light emanating from the bulb, creating stages of an eclipse (or eclisse in Italian). When fully closed, only a ring of light illuminates the edges of the shield’s circle.

Tizio Table Lamp, designed 1971, made 1972–1973
ABS plastic, aluminum, metal, and halogen bulb
Richard Sapper (German, 1932–2015), designer
Artemide, Italian, established 1960, manufacturer
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift of the manufacturer, 1973One of the most commercially successful lighting designs of the twentieth century, Richard Sapper’s Tizio features adjustable and counterbalanced arms that allow for smooth directional placement of the light source. The technologically innovative Tizio, which had the ability to conduct electricity through its arms without wires, was one of the earliest examples of a task lamp to incorporate a generator as well as a halogen in its base.