Incollect Magazine - Issue 15

Incollect Magazine 77 Photo: Lindsay Morris For Carlos Lopez, founder of Madrid’s L.A. Studio, that enduring appeal lies in Nason’s remarkable economy of means. “Nason had an extraordinary ability to create designs of expressive strength from simple yet effective lines,” Lopez says. “His work never relied on excess. It was grounded in formal clarity and a nearly silent elegance.” Lopez believes Nason also occupied a uniquely fertile territory between art, design, and craft — a position that increasingly defines the most compelling collectible design today. “His creations illuminate spaces,” he says, “but they also construct their own atmospheres.” Few works demonstrate that more eloquently than the Cactus floor lamp, perhaps the most technically ambitious object of Nason’s career. Built around a concealed metal armature supporting multiple light sources, the sculpture is composed of dozens of individually crafted glass leaves produced using the demanding ghiaccio, or ice-glass, technique. In this process, molten glass is plunged into cold water, creating a network of delicate fractures that are then sealed beneath another layer of glass. The resulting surfaces appear frozen, crystalline, catching and diffusing light with extraordinary subtlety. Each leaf can be repositioned, allowing the owner to alter not only the sculpture’s appearance but also the character of the light itself — a remarkably interactive concept decades before such flexibility became commonplace. Nason’s work has been long appreciated by discerning interior designers. The late New York designer Amy Lau incorporated his lighting into her celebrated interiors, while dealer/designer Robert Stilin has continued to champion his work among American collectors. Yet one of the defining qualities of his career was its democratic breadth. Alongside highly sophisticated sculptural Top left: The LS 134 pendant light is perhaps the most iconic of Nason’s creations, named Medusa by Nason’s wife for its resemblance to a jellyfish (medusa is the Italian word for jellyfish). The four nested shades begin with an opaque inverted tulip-shaped form designed to diffuse the light source, surrounded by three nested pulegoso glass forms that reveal the complex curvature and varying density effect of the layers. Designed for Mazzega in 1969. Available from Domus Aurea on Incollect.com. Photo: Courtesy of Domus Aurea. Top right and bottom row (details): The LT 328 Sfera table lamp in hand-blown pulegoso Murano glass. Four interlocking layers are stacked to form a sphere, with a dense field of bubbles in the glass softening the light to a warm, atmospheric glow. For Mazzega, circa 1970s. Available from Domus Aurea on Incollect.com. Photo: Courtesy of Domus Aurea.