As part of the first design auction of the year 2021, PIASA is proud to present to collectors, on Wednesday January 20th in Brussels, several luminaires by the italian designer Gino Sarfatti
The cosmopolitanism of the City of the Doges, which witnessed its birth in 1912, was a breeding ground of rare fertility for the Italian designer Gino Sarfatti. As a result of international economic sanctions in response to the attack on Ethiopia by Italian troops (1935), the ruin of his family forced the young man to interrupt the aeronautical engineering studies he had begun four years earlier.
This setback was in fact a serious stroke of fate. Cleverly advised by a family friend, he founded his first lighting company (Lumen) in Milan. Within a few years, he succeeded in imposing modernity in the homes of the Milanese bourgeoisie. The adventure continued until 1938 when, having become a minority shareholder, he withdrew from the business. Together with his friends, Maurizio Tempestini and Franco Buzzi, he set up a new company, Arte Luce. In 1940, he took part in the 7th Milan Triennial before having to go into exile in Switzerland where he continued to work. As soon as the war was over, Gino Sarfatti hurried back to his adopted city, which had meanwhile been bombed for the first time in its history.
Gino Sarfatti (1912-1985)
Model n° 1081
Estimate: 6000 / 9000 €
In 1950, while on his first trip to the United States, Gino Sarfatti entrusted the artistic direction of Arteluce to his friend the designer Vittoriano Vigano. Vigano was to bring his own style to the production process. From the columns of the prestigious magazine Domus, founded by the architect Gio Ponti, to the showrooms in Chicago in 1950 and then in Paris in 1952, the immediate post-war period was one of international recognition. Master of the mobile and modular, attentive to the most innovative technologies, Gino Sarfatti remained, throughout his life, attentive to contemporary artistic movements. His work was rewarded in 1954, with a prize at the 10th Milan Triennial
Gino Sarfatti (1912-1985)
Model n° 2130 'Moon'
Estimate: 8000 / 12000 €
In 1973, a year before retiring to the enchanting shores of Lake Como, he was entrusted with the decoration of the Royal Theatre of Turin. The cloud of light in the main auditorium, made up of countless Plexiglas rods, caused a sensation. In 1985, the National Museum of Modern Art organised an ambitious exhibition "Light, I think of you" in which several pieces by Gino Sarfatti were presented. He died three months before it opened.
Since his death, the interest of the public and the market has persisted. The sales made by PIASA bear witness to this, notably in 2020 with the model n°1025 lamp post sold for nearly 16,000 euros (high estimate: 4,500 euros) or in 2018, with the model 1036 lamp post sold for 26,000 euros.
Gino Sarfatti (1912-1985)
Model n° 2131
Estimate: 4000 / 6000 €
