Gino Sarfatti

Italian designer Gino Sarfatti (1912-1985) was a master of lighting design and founder of the lighting brand Arteluce. Sarfatti was born in Venice and moved to Genoa to study aeronautical engineering until he was forced to interrupt his studies in the late 1930s due to the war. Sarfatti founded Arteluce in Milan in 1939. In 1943, he and his family had to flee from Italy to Switzerland but returned after the war to Milan to reorganize Arteluce’s production. The 1950s was a golden era for Arteluce: in 1954, two of Sarfatti’s lamps were awarded the Grand Prix at Milan’s Triennale, and in the two following years his designs received the Compasso d’Oro award. In 1973, Sarfatti sold Arteluce to the Italian lighting manufacturer Flos who continues the production of Sarfatti’s design classics.