Team Blog Series: Ingo Maurer - Poet of Light - By Salome Katsadze
Team Blog Series - Here you will explore blogs prepared by our team members about the topics, news, and stories that moved and influenced them.
Today our blog was prepared by Salome Katsadze, Interior Designer at MUA Architecture & Placemaking.
Today our blog was prepared by Salome Katsadze, Interior Designer at MUA Architecture & Placemaking.
Ingo Maurer – Poet Of Light
In this article will be discussed the key works of the designer, beginning from the 1960s till today.
A student of typography and graphic design in Germany and Switzerland, Ingo Maurer immigrated to the United States, working as a freelance designer in New York and San Francisco. Settling once again in Germany in 1966, he started his own company, Design M, which later mutated into Ingo Maurer GmbH, producing to this day both Ingo’s fixtures and the hand-picked work of other ingenious designers.
His first lamp, designed in 1966, was a large crystal bulb enclosing a smaller one. Called simply “Bulb”, it won a prize from the designer Charles Eames and in 1968 became part of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in New York.
A student of typography and graphic design in Germany and Switzerland, Ingo Maurer immigrated to the United States, working as a freelance designer in New York and San Francisco. Settling once again in Germany in 1966, he started his own company, Design M, which later mutated into Ingo Maurer GmbH, producing to this day both Ingo’s fixtures and the hand-picked work of other ingenious designers.
His first lamp, designed in 1966, was a large crystal bulb enclosing a smaller one. Called simply “Bulb”, it won a prize from the designer Charles Eames and in 1968 became part of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in New York.
Bulb
Since 1989, his design and objects have been presented in a series of exhibitions, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1993). In 2002, the Vitra Design Museum organized Ingo Maurer – Light – Reaching for the Moon, a traveling exhibition with several shows in Europe and Japan. In 2007, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York presented the exhibition Provoking Magic: Lighting of Ingo Maurer.
Poster of the exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum
“Flying Flames” is a flexible chandelier system. The magical LED candles, presented by Moritz Waldemeyer and Ingo Maurer in 2012, are combined with simple and functional Downlight Elements. Both elements are placed freely with a magnet on the canopy board.
Flying Flames
The Porca Miseria Chandelier is both a revolt against the slickness of contemporary design and Maurer’s celebration of cinematic slow-motion explosions, like those seen in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Zabriskie Point (1970).
Porca Miseria
Explosion is a recurring theme. The iconic Zettel’z chandelier is a spacial blast of Japanese paper sheets, some printed and some blank for the owner to scribble and write personal messages on them.
Zettel’z
“One From the Heart” developed as a wedding gift for friends. One blue and one red cable entwine with one another beneath the red heart. A heart-shaped mirror reflects the light onto the wall or floor. Below lurk two green crocodiles. The light source is placed inside the heart and illuminates the mirror.
One From the Heart
The Lucellino LED TRI-R Table Lamp has been created by the in-house studio for the brand Ingo Maurer. Introduced in 1992, Lucellino is a truly angelic creation. Decorated with playful wings, this lamp combined the Italian words for 'little bird' and 'light'. With its creativity and practical qualities, it is sure to soar into the hearts of everyone who uses it.
The Lucellino
The Uchiwa series, inspired by Japanese culture, was made in the 1970s. They are super delicate, made of bamboo and lacquered rice paper.Borrowing from traditional Japanese techniques of fan making, these graceful new organic forms were created. The light has a core structure formed from thin wooden struts that have been sandwiched and laminated in paper. Its golden tones emit a warm glow.
Uchiwa series
Besides the design of lamps for serial production, Ingo Maurer created and planned light installations for public or private spaces. In Munich, he created light installations at Westfriedhof subway station (1998), and the renovation and lighting concept for Münchner Freiheit U-Bahn station opened in December 2009.
Westfriedhof subway station
Münchner Freiheit U-Bahn station
Ingo Maurer's Snowflake for New York’s holiday season graces the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Mid-Manhattan since 2004. The handcrafted object of stainless steel, crystal prisms and lighting fixtures shines as a “beacon of hope, peace and compassion for vulnerable children around the world” (UNICEF).
UNICEF Crystal Snowflake, New York, 2004
After the passing of the great designer (2019), Ingo Maurer team pursues the tradition of making exceptional lighting design.
Author: Salome Katsadze
Author: Salome Katsadze