I have a lot to say on the subject of “the great light” in a room. In my opinion, the lighting of general costs with a single source is blinding, migraine and inducing anxiety. It is also completely useless – especially since the lighting designer Richard Kelly and the architect Philip Johnson created a radical and shiny alternative in the middle of the 20th century. The two late visionaries have turned The way you turn on a part On its head – and the reintroduction of their design this year, after a gap in the production of 58 years, is good news for those who promote lighting that shines rather than for looks.
The ground lamp that Kelly designed in 1953 for Johnson famous modernist glass house in Connecticut Works from zero, reflecting the light from a bulb twice: upwards in a cone top, then below and outside, spreading a soft glow around the surrounding floor. The object itself looks like a simple drum, recalling both Bauhaus engineering and a Japanese pagoda. The top of it is not much higher than the height of the head when you sit, so it feels humble as much as it looks beautiful.
“It is a small element of architecture,” explains Craig Bassam, half of the design practice based in Connecticut Bassamfellows, which is responsible for bringing it design back. “There is no front, back or sides, which is important in a glass house, where you live in circles and must make sure that the back of a chair looks as well as the front. That is why so many art collectors liked to have this lamp in their homes.” The best he saw? “Besides a Marino Marini or a Mark Rothko.”
In the photographs of the great and good of the world of American art of yesteryear, the light has constant cames. He appears in the apartment of William Am Burden, president of the MoMA, and in the guest house that Johnson made for Blanchette Rockefeller on East 52nd Street (which was then given to the museum). He is in a photo of Johnson at home in the glass house, entertaining Andy Warhol and his peers.
The design will return from the 21st century to the 3 -day design festival in Copenhagen in June before being sold in the fall. His reappearance is under contract with Johnson's Glass House Trust and Addison Kelly, Richard's daughter. In many ways, Bassam and his partner Scott Fellows were part of the extended family.
The duo founded its studio in 2003, creating woodwork and padded furniture that is part of the cannon of the famous modern masters in the middle of the century. Their life has been embarked on the history of the lamp since 2007, when they moved into the 1951 house that Philip Johnson built for Richard and Geraldine Hodgson. “The Hodgsons had one of the original lamps, but they won with them,” said Fellows. “But they left tailor -made furniture (ordered) by Johnson in the 1980s, including an extra table in granite block with a personalized version of the encrusted lamp. We lit it the first night when we stayed in the house and immediately understood the power of the design.”
Richard Kelly then lit many architectural masterpieces – notably the Seagram building in Manhattan – and its scenography is brilliantly theatrical. “He has always illuminated the outdoor areas too”, explains Bassam, “so when you turn on the lamp, the glass walls disappear immediately, and you see directly to the courtyard and the surrounding rooms. It's a real “power” moment. “
The floor lamp was created to solve a problem. Johnson's aesthetics were a matter of transparency. But transparency is equal to reflections. Remembering his friend Kelly two years after his death in 1977, during a ceremony to launch a scholarship fund on his behalf, Johnson explained how important the lamp was for his architectural aesthetics: “When I moved to the glass house, there was no light other than the sun. Home.
Few of us live in the modernist pavilions of the 1950s which guarantee inclusion on open doors, but many of us have glass extensions. “More people choose to live in a transparent architecture, and the challenges are always neglected,” explains Fellows. “In addition, good lampposts are difficult to find – they are too decorative, stated, bland or simply not functional.” While many people like an Arco floor lamp from the 1960s, his overhanging arm sweeping in airspace can give you the impression that there is a triffide in the room. The Akari lanterns of the middle of the century of Isamu Noguchi are undeniably beautiful, but they are as many sculptures as light sources, dominating more than the corner they occupy with their washed Paper structures.
Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly's administration lamp of 1953 has been considerably refined since its original launch. The first parts were manufactured by US Lighting Brand Edison Price with three legs; They look great in photos but have turned constantly. Stover Jenkins, architect and co-author of The houses of Philip JohnsonThink of it was deliberate: “(Johnson) loved a little feeling of danger,” he said. “He was probably delighted with any precariousness.”
As difficult as these tripod lamps are, these are now design treasures. One of the originals that had been used in the glass house cost $ 63,000 in 1999 at Christie's in New York, leaving its auction estimate from $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 in dust. A pair of the following four -legged versions, on the other hand, sold $ 15,120 in Wright in Chicago in 2023.
The Bassamfellows version is robust, made of elegant stainless steel. “The originals were in brass, which is soft, with an aluminum shade which has always fallen,” explains Fellows. “I have never seen an original that is not bumpy. Stainless steel means that you notice less the materiality. You focus on the quality of light. “
On a bassam wall and Fellows' room, there are a set of yellow drawers that pay tribute to Donald Judd. The artist and manufacturer of minimalist furniture agreed with the designers on the lighting, developing on the subject in his 1993 test “it is difficult to find a good lamp”. Judd hates most of what has been done in the form of modernism, writing: “almost all furniture made since the 1920s and long before in one of the” modern “and” traditional “, have been compensation for consumers”. He distinguished Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the mentor of Philip Johnson) as an exception.
Today, there are a thousand and one designer lamps, but the best gives you priority, the user, on the designer. The Johnson and Kelly Lamp do that.
Price $ 9,995; bassamfellows.com
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