Jacques Adnet "Quadro" Table Lamp for Lumen Center Italia, 1929

Design
1929

Manufacture
1920-1929

Location
Lonigo, IT

Jacques Adnet "Quadro" table lamp for Lumen Center Italia, glass and metal, Italy, 1929.

Designed by Jacques Adnet in 1929, the "Quadro" table lamp is a striking exercise in geometric abstraction and early modernist lighting. Constructed from polished tubular brass in a rectilinear composition, the lamp forms two interlocking rectangles—one suspended within the other—mounted on a black lacquered base. The structural frame doubles as a support and a lighting element, housing linear light tubes that emphasize the clarity of the design.
The composition is rigorous yet expressive: a grid reduced to essentials, where line becomes light and volume becomes void. The piece anticipates later experiments by designers such as Gino Sarfatti and Vittoriano Viganò, while aligning with the rationalist aesthetics of the Union des Artistes Modernes, of which Adnet was a prominent member.
Adnet (1900–1984) was a leading figure in French modernism, known for his refined use of materials and formal innovation. His work spans from Art Deco interiors to avant-garde collaborations with Hermes and La Compagnie des Arts Français. The "Quadro" lamp reflects his shift toward a more architectural, object-based language that sought harmony between function and pure form.
More than a lamp, this is a luminous drawing in space—a radical statement in light, still relevant nearly a century after its creation.