Gino Sarfatti

Gino Sarfatti
Venice 1912 – 1984
Engineer, lighting designer.

Gino Sarfatti – born in Venice in 1912 and with an educational background in engineering – started designing lamps and founded the company ‘Arteluce’ (the art of lighting) in 1939. Arteluce quickly established itself as a leading actor in shaping the modern Italian architectural movement, and became a meeting place and hub for many of the leading Italian mid-century designers, including Franco Albini, Gianfranco Frattini, Sergio Asti and Ico Parisi for example.

Sarfatti designed over 400 lighting products and made a significant contribution to innovating lighting design by experimenting with new materials, production methodologies and light sources. In 1951, he first began to work with plexi-glass. Gino Sarfatti was the first to design a lamp that uses halogen bulbs back in 1971. Sarfatti and Arteluce received several design awards including e.g. the prestigious Compasso d’Oro in 1954 and 1955, and the Honorary Diploma at the Milan Triennale. Arteluce was sold to Flos in 1973 and took over production of many lights.

Important literature:
Gino Sarfatti Galerie Christine Diegoni, Frederic Leibovitz, 2008
Gino Sarfatti 1938-1973 selected works, Marco Romanelli Sandra Severi, Silvana Editoriale 2012

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