Albano Poli for Poliarte, sculptural wall fixture in cast glass, Italy, 1970s

Albano Poli, with great foresight and a precise vision, founded in 1968 POLI ARTE which immediately established itself in the panorama of Made In Italy furniture design and, in that same year, Albano Poli received the first recognition at the XXXIV Venice Biennale: a lamp sculpture with cubic geometry that became the symbol and inspiration for all subsequent production.

The work of light created on commission, such as the artistic stained glass window, is transformed into something unique and in step with the times, the art of light previously linked to architecture, in particular of large churches, thanks to the electricity is collected in the hands of the artist who gives it a new casing and turns what was once mere ambient lighting into a work capable of moving those who live in that environment.

This is how the POLI ARTE lamps were born, which in the glass identify a soul linked both to the tradition and to the experience of the artist-designer. Inspired by the masses of waste glass from the Murano furnaces, usually transformed into split and shapeless blocks commonly called "gems", the master Poli thinks of a glass that is no longer fragile and delicate like that of the stained glass window, but solid and safe, a module that would allow the construction of works of art in step with the times, a metaphor of the multiplicity that together gives life to something unique.

In 1970, confirming the success of the POLI ARTE lamps as real works of art and not just a piece of furniture and design, Albano Poli was awarded the gold medal at the XXII International Craft Fair in Monk. The recognition consolidated a market that had already started, the German one, but it was also an important springboard for the Italian and international market: an unexpected success because it did not depend on particular marketing operations but only and exclusively on the great value of these lamps, immediately and widely understood .