Floor lamp

There is a layer of opaque white glass on top of the colourless, translucent base glass. The stand is a tapering cylindrical form with a round base, which supports a large, disc-like head that is depressed on both sides. Simplicity is the salient characteristic of this elegant, soft, organic form.

Graduating from the College of Applied Arts, Zsófia Kanyák became a designer at the Hollow Glass Works of Salgótarján in 1971. The same year she spent a month on a scholarship at La Murrina and Moretti, two glass factories in Murano, a city where glassmaking traditions go back to the 13th century. Several of her lamp designs were realized and presented at the Milan Fair.

Following the success of the lamps made in Murano, she was invited by Rosenthal to work at the German company’s Design Studio from 1972. The form used in the floor lamp was developed further to create items for the Lichtobjekt series, such as lamps, lidded boxes and glass sculptures.

This floor lamp, which was acquired by the Museum of Applied Arts in 2008, was first shown to the Hungarian public in 1972, at Zsófia Kanyák’s solo exhibition in Fészek Művészklub. The item was first exhibited at the Museum of Applied Arts in 1977, at the retrospective exhibition dedicated to the memory of the artist who died tragically young.