Wright Auction

In 1985, Philip Cutler created the pioneering exhibition: The Italian Lamp: 1945-1985, A Collection. The first exhibition to comprehensively evaluate post-war Italian lighting featured nearly 100 lamps including many rarities that were only produced as prototypes. Cutler worked with Fulvio Ferrari to acquire many of the rarest and most revolutionary designs included in this extraordinary exhibition.

The comprehensive survey of three decades of Italian lighting was on view for a month at the avant-garde New York showroom called Furniture of the Twentieth Century. The show turned out to be ahead of its time and the market and a majority of the collection was subsequently sold by Full House; Swope and Hurst acquired a few of their favorite designs for their own personal collection.

The following three outstanding works by Lapo Binazzi are among the Italian lighting designs acquired by Swope and Hurst from this collection. Binazzi, born in 1943, was a key participant in the radical architecture movement and founder of the experimental UFO group (1967) that brought conceptual art and architecture together. His fluorescent lighting designs, featuring iconic objects and symbols, are beacons of Pop culture. They were produced in extremely small numbers and perfectly express the best of Italian Radical Design.

Additional works acquired via Philip Cutler include:

148

LUIGI CACCIA DOMINIONI

LTE 1 floor lamp

estimate: $3,000–5,000

152

ETTORE SOTTSASS

Svincolo lamp from the Bau. Haus Collection

estimate: $10,000–15,000

163

ETTORE SOTTSASS

Cometa floor lamp from the Mobili Grigi series

estimate: $7,000–9,000

175

ETTORE SOTTSASS

Don table lamp

estimate: $1,000–1,500

184

LAPO BINAZZI

prototype Scarica Elettrica table lamp

estimate: $5,000–7,000

185

LAPO BINAZZI

prototype MGM table lamp

estimate: $5,000–7,000