Beschreibung:

Alessandro Mendini Prototype "Letargo" table lamp 1975 Bronze. 19 3/8 in. (49.2 cm) high Produced by Bracciodiferro, Italy. Number 4 from the production of approximately 4. Underside with brass label impressed LAMPADA LETARGO DI ALESSANDRO PRODUZIONE BRACCIODIFERRO S.R.L GENOVA-ITALIA PRIMA SERIE DI 100 ESEMPLARI ESEMPLARE N. 004. Together with the Marianne Brandt "Kandem" table lamp on which the design was based.
Provenance Collection of Aldo Cichero, Genoa Fragile, Milan Exhibited "Bracciodiferro: Gaetano Pesce - Alessandro Mendini 1971-1975," Biblioteca Umanistica dell'Incoronata, Milan, April 4-14, 2013 Literature Anty Pansera, Bracciodiferro: Gaetano Pesce - Alessandro Mendini 1971-1975, exh. cat., Biblioteca Umanistica dell'Incoronata, Milan, 2013, p. 51 for a period image, p. 52 for drawings, illustrated pp. 98-99 Catalogue Essay As with lots 401 and 406, Bracciodiferro intended to produce an edition of 100 examples of the present model, although only approximately 4 were made, as noted by Anty Pansera in the catalogue accompanying her recent exhibition, Bracciodiferro: Gaetano Pesce – Alessandro Mendini 1971-1975, in which the present “Letargo” appeared. Like Gaetano Pesce’s outsized “Moloch,” Mendini’s own postmodern “ridisegno” took as its source a modernist precursor, Marianne Brandt’s lacquered steel “Kandem” table lamp (1928), which Mendini enlarged and cast in bronze. Pansera observes that Brandt’s lamp has been reduced—(increased actually)—“to the semblance of the object it once was, as if in hibernation (letargo in Italian). Indeed, the decision to present it drowning in a sea of mud was no accident. The designer remembers that it was part of a small series of 'objects for spiritual use' that were designed for a number of covers for Casabella magazine when he was the editor.” Read More