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For 90 years, Italian company FontanaArte has been producing extraordinary lighting, the imaginings of some of the world’s most renowned design luminaries. The brand, available in Australia through Gineico Lighting, embodies the finest elements of Italian design. It consistently pushes boundaries and challenges conventions to create lighting fixtures that seamlessly blend functionality and art.
When, in 1931, renowned architect and industrial designer Gio Ponti took the creative reins at the Italian lighting company founded as Luigi Fontana & C. in 1881, he added “Arte” to its name. It was Ponti’s way of signalling to the design world that the esteemed brand was not just in the business of making functional lighting but of elevating it to an artform.
This year, FontanaArte, which is available in Australia through Gineico Lighting, is commemorating its 90th anniversary, having been officially founded in 1932, the year following Ponti’s involvement. For nine decades, the Milan-based company has upheld Ponti’s singular vision, creating lighting that blends functionality and artistry. “By bringing art into the home and giving glass the capacity to personify light, transparency and reflection, our lamps influence everything around them,” says Francesco Librizzi, the company’s Artistic Director.
Ponti was the first of an illustrious roll call of designers and architects to create works for FontanaArte, all of them consistently pushing boundaries and challenging conventions. His Bilia lamp – a feat of balance between a conical brushed-metal base and a round glass globe – remains as relevant today as it did when it was released in 1932. Also in 1932, the Pietro Chiesa-designed Luminator in aluminium became the world’s first indirect light floor lamp, while, in 1954, the company released the Fontana Table Lamp by French master glassmaker Max Ingrand, who would later become the brand’s creative director. This piece remains one of the world’s most iconic lighting designs.
Glass and technology remain the two recurring and distinctive elements of FontanaArte’s collections.
Glass (combined with the finest-grade Italian marble and metals like aluminium) and technology remain the two recurring and distinctive elements of the company’s collections. One of its most recent designs, Oort, is composed of tubular elements made of borosilicate glass fitted with the latest-generation LED light tubes, which creates uniform 360-degree light emission. The glass is ribbed on the inside, a feature that enhances the distribution of light and exacerbates the effect of light and shadow.
Increasingly, FontanaArte’s most renowned historic pieces are being updated and reimagined. Max Ingrand’s Fontana Table Lamp, for instance, has been revived as an LED version in new colourways like Light Grey and Purple Amethyst, or in Brass. In 2020, the Re and Regina lamps, designed in 1968 by Bobo Piccoli and inspired by chess pieces, were re-edited and won the prestigious Wallpaper* award for Best Reissue.
