Ingo Maurer

Lifetime

1932–2019

Country

Germany

Ingo Maurer was born in 1932 on Reichenau Island in Lake Constance and died on 21 October 2019 in Munich at the age of 87. He trained as a typographer; from 1954–1958 he studied graphic design in Switzerland and Munich.

In 1966 he designed the “Bulb” lamp – a fitting built around a light bulb – which the Museum of Modern Art added to its collection in 1969; in subsequent years, the museum also acquired other objects by him. The Design M company he founded in Munich later became Ingo Maurer GmbH, and the ML collection was created in the 1970s. Further designs by Maurer include Bibbibi (1982), YaYaHo (1984), Touch tronic (1986) and Lucellino (1989); Zettel’z (1997) was created beyond the mid-century period.

In Maurer’s work, the bulb and light itself became the central themes of the design, rather than merely technical elements of a fitting. His works were shown, among others, at Fondation Cartier (1989), Vitra Design Museum and Centre Pompidou, where the “Tableaux Chinois” series was presented.