Bella Durmiente is a totem of light, a large luminous metaphor which is a vertical shaft of colour. Bella Durmiente originally featured painted shades signed by prominent artists, but has gradually evolved to the current version which is reminiscent of Mondrian's geometric abstraction.
Bella Durmiente is a fluorescent lamp which combines the intense light of its central tube with the extraordinary richness of its colourful shade. A piece that broke with the fashion of the time, Bella Durmiente is the work of designers who put forward the colour of fluorescent light when it was thought to be cold and without soul, at a time when halogen light and cold metal were all the rage. The shade was conceived as a folding painting, with the idea of transforming the disturbing fluorescent light into a warm light.
No one knows more about colour than painters so, during the eighties, some of Barcelona's leading painters and illustrators were commissioned to do silk screen prints, among them Francesca Llopis, Peret, Perico Pastor, Carlos Pazos, Vicenç Viaplana, and Gabriel Ordeig and Nina Masó, who designed the original lamp. In this re-edition from 2000, colour continues to be the essential element. The hand-made foldable parchment screen gives the lamp a perfectly vertical look.
The colours are arranged in an abstract, rhythmic sequence which combines both warm and cold tones. The objective formality of the lines blends with the distinct personalities of the colours. The colours vibrate like sounds, alternating between short and long colours laid out in accordance with Newton's Law: the primary triad: red, yellow and blue, and the secondary: green, purple and orange.
Black metal lids top off this sculptural lamp, highlighting its classic totem-like character. The lamp is a collection of colourful sensations. The magic of colour is hidden in the Bella Durmiente, a sensation we can experience even with our eyes closed. It hides in its dreams the secret of the mysterious relations which exist between colours and the senses.
Bella Durmiente shows off its colourfulness in all types of interiors - the beauty of a lamp that sleeps but awakens radiantly when switched on. A single colour doesn't satisfy the retina. Colour is subjective. Colours are pure appearance. Because colour lives within us.
Design:
Gabriel Ordeig Cole
Nina Masó
Year:
1987
Manufacturer:
Santa & Cole
Bella Durmiente is a fluorescent lamp which combines the intense light of its central tube with the extraordinary richness of its colourful shade. A piece that broke with the fashion of the time, Bella Durmiente is the work of designers who put forward the colour of fluorescent light when it was thought to be cold and without soul, at a time when halogen light and cold metal were all the rage. The shade was conceived as a folding painting, with the idea of transforming the disturbing fluorescent light into a warm light.
No one knows more about colour than painters so, during the eighties, some of Barcelona's leading painters and illustrators were commissioned to do silk screen prints, among them Francesca Llopis, Peret, Perico Pastor, Carlos Pazos, Vicenç Viaplana, and Gabriel Ordeig and Nina Masó, who designed the original lamp. In this re-edition from 2000, colour continues to be the essential element. The hand-made foldable parchment screen gives the lamp a perfectly vertical look.
The colours are arranged in an abstract, rhythmic sequence which combines both warm and cold tones. The objective formality of the lines blends with the distinct personalities of the colours. The colours vibrate like sounds, alternating between short and long colours laid out in accordance with Newton's Law: the primary triad: red, yellow and blue, and the secondary: green, purple and orange.
Black metal lids top off this sculptural lamp, highlighting its classic totem-like character. The lamp is a collection of colourful sensations. The magic of colour is hidden in the Bella Durmiente, a sensation we can experience even with our eyes closed. It hides in its dreams the secret of the mysterious relations which exist between colours and the senses.
Bella Durmiente shows off its colourfulness in all types of interiors - the beauty of a lamp that sleeps but awakens radiantly when switched on. A single colour doesn't satisfy the retina. Colour is subjective. Colours are pure appearance. Because colour lives within us.
Design:
Gabriel Ordeig Cole
Nina Masó
Year:
1987
Manufacturer:
Santa & Cole
