Gabriella Crespi

Gabriella Crespi is an Italian designer and artist best known for her sculptural furniture designs of the 1960s and 1970s. A mix between Mid-Century Modern and Art Nouveau, her lamps, coffee tables, and desks utilize futuristic, Minimalist forms of intersecting golden brass slabs, ovals, and planes. “I was inspired only by the universe,” the designer has said. Born in 1922 in Tuscany near Florence, Crespi studied at the Polytechnic in Milan, where she garnered a fascination with the seminal work of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. Crespi began her prolific career by making miniature lunar-inspired steel sculptures in 1950, quickly shifting gears to industrial and furniture design by the 1960s, working heavily with Maison Dior. She continued to make her work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, notably abandoning her design practice in 1985 to pursue a spiritual and ascetic lifestyle, giving away all her worldy possessions. The designer died on February 14, 2017 in Milan, Italy.