"Tizio" Table Lamp

1972

Not on view

With the "Tizio" lamp, designer Richard Sapper sought to redesign the standard desk lamp, creating one that was completely adjustable and featured a precise and intense yet small light source. After methodical experimentation, Sapper came up with a design wherein the very form of the lamp enabled its function. Using a sensitive counterweight system, the adjustable arm of the lamp can be manipulated into almost any position, allowing the user to direct the light source exactly where it is needed most. The arms themselves conduct electricity to the bulb, eliminating the need for extraneous wires and facilitating the precise balance of the arm. The lamp features a halogen bulb, marking one of the first uses of this type of light outside the automobile industry. Directed by its small reflector, the halogen bulb provides a highly concentrated, direct light source, which can be easily adjusted to suit the user.

Artwork Details

Title: "Tizio" Table Lamp
Designer: Richard Sapper (German, Munich 1932–2015 Milan)
Manufacturer: Artemide S.p.A.
Date: 1972
Medium: Polyamide (Nylon), Polycarbonate, aluminum, metal alloy
Dimensions: 26 3/16 × 4 5/16 × 29 1/2 in., 122oz. (66.5 × 11 × 75 cm, 7.6 lb.)
Classification: Lighting
Credit Line: Gift of Artemide S.p.A., Italy, 1988
Object Number: 1988.236.10
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Richard Sapper

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Tantalo Clock, Richard Sapper German, Metal, polyester coating, poly (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS) base, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) clock face, polyamide-6,6 (nylon-6,6) gasketing — Tantalo Clock
Designer Richard Sapper
Manufacturer Artemide S.p.A.
late 1960s–1970s

Armor, Steel, leather, German, possibly Lower Saxony — Armor
German, possibly Lower Saxony
ca. 1540–50 and later

Nebula, Joris Laarman Dutch, Glass, aluminum, polycarbonate, steel and bulbs — Nebula
Designer Joris Laarman
Manufacturer Flos S.p.A.
2007

"Asteroid" Lamp, Ettore Sottsass Italian, born Austria, Colored poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and cast aluminum — "Asteroid" Lamp
Designer Ettore Sottsass
Manufacturer Poltronova
1968

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