Sonora
The theme of geometry transposed to the design of lamps was a constant factor in Magistretti's lighting engineering projects in the ?60s and ?70s that becomes evident in many of the projects for Artemide and Oluce, the company in which Magistretti will be appointed art director and principal designer from 1973 to 1988/89, impressing his unmistakable mark. Sonora, which anticipates the configuration of the Atollo lamp, is a hanging lamp with a hemispherical shade reflector originally designed and manufactured in spun white-painted aluminium in several dimensions: model 410 with a 100 cm diameter; model 409 with a 70 cm diameter and model 408 with a 50 cm diameter. Characterised by generous dimensions and fitted with Globolux lightbulbs with varying intensity according to the model, this lamp is suspended by an electric cable which was originally black and is now transparent and therefore invisible, and was particularly appreciated by the public and reproposed in a variety of dimensions and materials. The opal etched Murano blown glass version was selected in 1990 to make the model 411 (50 cm diameter) and model 438 (38 cm). Later, Sonora was reproposed with a 90 cm diameter in opaque and transparent methacrylate, with model 490 updated in 2006 with the model 493, reaching an unprecedented diameter of 133 cm. The use of opaque methacrylate associated with the gold leaf lining of the reflector is the principal feature of model 490/OR of 2009. The light is direct in the models fitted with opaque reflectors while the diffused and direct light effect is emitted by the versions with a transparent glass or PMMA reflector.
Metal. Spun and painted aluminium; black, gold ((408, 409, 410))
Methacrylate. Opal, opaque white and black, transparent; outside white / black - inside gold ((490, 493,490/OR).)
490/OR: model in opaque methacrylate, ø 90 cm, H 45 cm
493: model in opaque and transparent methacrylate ø 133 cm, H 61 cm
490: model in opaque and transparent methacrylate ø 90 cm, H 45 cm
438: model in opal etched Murano blown glass, ø 38 cm, H 19 cm
411: model in opal etched Murano blown glass, ø 50 cm, H 25 cm
410: ø 100 cm, H 50 cm
409: ø 70 cm, H 35 cm
408: ø 50 cm, H 25 cm
L. Coz, Magistretti design, in Casamica 9, settembre 2001
Rassegna, Domus luglio-agosto 2004, 872, pp./nn. 131
B. Finessi, Vico Magistretti, Mantova, Corraini 2003
M. T. Feraboli, Vico Magistretti, I maestri del Design, Milano, Il Sole 24 Ore 2011, pp./nn. 66
