Table Lamp by Alessandro Mendini for Artemide, 1990s

Alessandro Mendini was born in Milan in 1931. Through his work as an architect, designer, journalist, theorist, and publisher, Mendini helped establish the Italian design sensibility on a global scale—with a particular focus on neo-modern, avant-garde design, as well as the crossover between art, design, and architecture.

Mendini’s influential work spanned the arenas of graphics, furniture, interiors, architecture, stage design, writing, and painting. He graduated from the Politecnico in Milan in 1959, and he began his career at the studio of artist-designer Marcello Nizzoli. Mendini went on to become the publisher of the popular magazines Casabella (1970-76), Modo and Domus (each 1979-85). In 1979, he joined Ettore Sottsass and Michele De Lucchi as a partner at Studio Alchimia—a harbinger of the Memphis Group—before he cofounded Domus Academy in 1982. In 1989, he and his brother Francesco established their architectural practice, Atelier Mendini, in Milan, where he worked until his death in February 2019.

Some of Mendini’s most famed works include the Proust Chair for Cappellini (1978), a baroque form hand painted with a colorful, pointillist surface pattern, and the revitalization of the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands (1994), among others. He designed pieces for a variety of brands, including Alessi, Swatch, Philips, Swarovski, many of which have become contemporary design icons—such as his anthropomorphic Anna G. corkscrew (1994) for Alessi, which was inspired by fellow Italian designer and friend Anna Gili.

In recognition of his outstanding body of work, Mendini was awarded the Compasso d’Oro twice, in 1979 and 1981. He was also honored by the Architectural League of New York, made Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France, and, in 2014, he was awarded the European Prize for Architecture. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.

In 2019, Mendini passed away at the age of 87.

Legendary Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide was founded in the Milan area in 1959 by engineer-designer Ernesto Gismondi (born in San Remo, 1931) and designer Sergio Mazza (born in Milan, 1931). Notably, the latter designed the company’s first successful product, the Alfa Lamp, a year prior to Artemide’s launch. Both founders went on to contribute designs to Artemide’s ever-evolving lines over the next several decades, alongside spearheading the company’s mission to develop distinctive, architecturally-driven lamps, pendants, and other fixtures in collaboration with major design talents from around the world.

Highlights from Artemide’s vast catalogue include Italian designer Vico Magistretti’s space-age Eclisse Lamp (1967) and German-Italian designer Richard Sapper’s minimal, halogen-lit Tizio Desk Lamp (1972), which has become one of the most popular workspace accessories ever produced. The 1980s saw the launch of the Tolomeo Lamp (1987), designed by Italians Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina, which quickly became an international symbol of the “Made in Italy” style that dominated design tastes at the end of the last century. Today, Artemide continues to commission high-tech, high-concept works—increasingly with a focus on sustainability—from notable international designers, such as Herzog & De Meuron, Naoto Fukasawa, Karim Rashid, and Zaha Hadid, among others. Through the decades, many of Artemide’s lighting designs have been awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro, with the company itself receiving a “Career Achievement” award in 1995

For more than 50 years, Artemide’s approach has set the pace for design innovation with well-researched products that often end up in the pages of design history books. Numerous pieces have been acquisitioned into museum collections around the world, from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica in Milan, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.