The lighting designer, who had taken the world by storm with his whimsical, and at times wholly irreverent designs, passed away at age 87, surrounded by family, in his home in Munich. Lovingly referred to as "poet of light", his playful and unexpected creations will live on forever, and serve as inspiration for generations to come. Here, we pay an ode to the legend:
Early Life
Ingo Maurer was the son of a fisherman and grew up on the island Reichenau, close to Lake of Constance with four siblings. In 1960, after completing his apprenticeship as a typesetter, he went to study commercial graphics, in Germany. Post that, he moved to the United States where he worked as a freelance graphic artist until 1963. He then returned to Germany and travelled to Japan and Brazil before moving to New York, where he lived for over 40 years. Over the course of his prolific career, Maurer won a slew of accolades, from the Compasso d'Oro to the Design Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the title Royal Designer of Industry, which he was awarded by the British Royal Society of Arts.
Notable Works
In 1984 he created a low-voltage wire system YaYaHo, consisting of two horizontally fixed metal ropes and a series of adjustable lighting elements with halogen bulbs, which became an instant success. Maurer was asked to create special YaYaHo installations for the exhibition "Lumieres je pense a vous" at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Villa Medici in Rome, and the Institut Francais d'Architecture in Paris. He also made the almost ludicrous “Bellissima Luzy” range of lamps, made from plastic gloves with frosted bulbs at the fingertips. It's a design that doesn't bear any sort of linear reasoning—because there is no reason that it should. Maurer was amused by the line of gloves, stained blue by the excessive use of blue dye, that would be hung up to dry in the studio at the end of every day and he decided to appropriate it into his aesthetic. It's just the sort of whimsical thing a world-renowned designer is expected to do.
Then there's Blow Me Up, Theo Möller's inflatable lamps lined with sensor-fitted LED strips on one side and a reflective surface on the other. It's a humorous design that allows the user to create light out of an entirely unlikely process. It is the sort of creativity, again, that completely defies linear thinking—the inspiration here seems to be, “why not?”
The Wizard of Lighting
Beyond his commercial lamps, Maurer also created large-scale lighting installations, for example for Issey Miyake's 1999 fashion show in the Parc de la Villette, the atrium of Lafayette Maison in Paris and the Torre Velasca in Milan. Also, not just new products, but also lighting projects in 2016 put his name on the map. Inside Estudio Brasil, the rippling ‘Golden Ribbon' glowed above his cracked dinosaur's egg emitting light. In 2016, in Milan, he lit up in crimson the Torre Velasca tower—designed in 1952 by BBPR architects. In 2009, when EU regulations stopped production of frosted halogen bulbs, at Maurer's annual party during the Milan fair, ‘Birds Birds Birds' defiantly flew in the face of the ban, each one of its 24 unfrosted bulbs cloaked in a condom.
His final installation, a sweeping chandelier made of more than 3,000 silver-plated leaves, was completed in Munich's Residenz Theater on 18 October, just days before his death. While the designer has reached his final abode, through his works, he will always live on.
