Joe Colombo, Coupé lamp for Oluce

JOE COLOMBO (Milan, 1930-1971) for Oluce.
Table lamp "Coupé".
First edition.
White lacquered metal.
In good condition, with marks of use.

Desk lamp with metal structure. Created in the sixties, the "Coupé" in arc is a lamp of simple and functional design, with height adjustable diffuser and arc axis, in fact, it is one of the first to present this form, which allows to focus the light downwards.

The Coupé series was initially conceived as a variant of the Spider family, created by the same designer, from which it retains the base and stem. In 1968, Coupé won the International Design Award of the American Institute of Interior Designers of Chicago. It is part of the permanent collection of the MoMA in New York and the Neue Sammlung Museum in Munich. Over the years, many Coupé models have been created (from the historic table lamp to floor and wall lamps), making it one of Oluce's best-known and best-loved collections.

Colombo was an industrial designer born in Milan. Before turning to design (starting in the 1950s), he was a painter and sculptor. Some historians believe that it was Colombo who made Milan the capital of design. He designed flexible, compressed interiors with rooms that could vary in size and placement within a single floor. His futuristic vision led him to devise circular shelves that hang from the ceiling, glasses with an off-center foot so that wine and cigarettes could be held in the same hand. He believed in plastic as a modern, revolutionary and effective material. He began experimenting with new materials, such as reinforced plastic, and with novel construction techniques and manufacturing methods. His first design for Kartell was chair No. 4801 (1963-1964) in three pieces of plywood. Such a design inspired his later work with plastic, such as the Universale Chair No. 4860 (1965-1967), the first adult seat molded in injection molded plastic (ABS). He died at the age of 40 while preparing for a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.