It was only in May that Ingo Maurer presented his art object "Pendulum" in the rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne. A silver-colored giant pendulum in egg shape, three meters high, made of highly polished aluminum, which will hang there until February 2020. A gentle thrust through the human hand, then it swings through the room like in a trance or slow motion, until its rashes become shorter and finally stop altogether.
Movement has always been part of Maurer's lighting concept, and even after the founder's death in October of this year, his team will continue as before: "The drawers are full of ideas for new projects," says designer Sebastian Hepting, who worked for Münchner Lichterfinder from 2003 onwards ,
Maurer had planned his large exhibition, "Ingo Maurer Intimate Design or what?", In the Paternoster Hall, but he was not supposed to see the opening in mid-November: Maurer's light went out on 21 October. The retrospective shows a ramble through the 87-year-old's rich achievements, a Daniel Gyroscope in the lighting industry, more and more inventors than classic industrial designers.
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Shining examples: lamps by Ingo MaurerOver 80 objects; Models and photos as well as a video now show the world of ideas Mauers, a kind of Wunderkammer. The visitor is astonished by the absurd, absurd or playful structures. Thus, for example, the floor lamps of the "MaMo Nouchies" series come as dreamy webs made of Japanese paper. With their dance-like lightness, they seem wondrous as newly discovered creatures from the deepest deep sea.
"He has loved the desert all his life," says his former colleague Hepting, who has come to the opening tour, also Maurer's daughter Claude and other team members are there. "We have never been guided by trends, but always by emotions," says Hepting about working with the veteran. "And visions, ideas, inspirations, he had to last."
The shadow is part of the design
The absence of light, the shadow, Maurer has always taken into account as an important counterpart. Fascinated by this duality and the immateriality of light, he took everyday objects out of context and created ironic, funny or minimalist sculptures, for example around readymades, he worked with feather wings, campari bottles, spaghetti, plastic crocodiles, napkins, deco-stork legs - or with Rubber gloves, which he dyed in Yves Klein blue, then hang at their fingertips filament.
Hardly any object seemed inappropriate, he pointed it around, playing with illusions. He experimented with materials such as Japanese paper, gold leaf, fabric, metal. For "seven rats," he stacked 17 cages of gold, brass, and steel into which he placed seven plastic battens. His inspiration came from Asian markets - the work is in Maurer's showroom in Kaiserstraße.
But the "Flying Flames" shimmer here in an angle of the Paternoster Hall, a floating LED chandelier system that perfectly simulates the natural candlelight, created in collaboration with designer Moritz Waldemeyer. The wall lamp "Oops", a web of paper, turns poetically around itself on the wall like a corkscrew. Behind every lamp is a story. Some tell themselves quickly, literally, like the light "What we do counts" with their comic balloon.
Names were equally important to him, as the linear table lamp "Mozzkito" shows. Maurer built comical models such as the "Lucellino" wall light with wings - also thought on a grand scale, planned comprehensive lighting concepts such as entire underground stations (Marienplatz and Westfriedhof in Munich), and dipped the famous Torre Velasca in Milan in clear red or blue.
World's first production-ready OLED luminaire
Maurer, who was born in Reichenau in 1932, worked for a long time as a graphic designer in the USA. In 1966 he sold the pear "Bulb" as an autodidact, since then he devoted himself exclusively to light. He founded his own company early to manage all steps from production to marketing and sales. So he could realize his ideas as soon as possible on the original vision. He achieved his international breakthrough with his "YaYaHo" lighting system, one of the first low-voltage cable systems for halogen reflectors. With "Early Future", he created the world's first production-ready OLED luminaire in 2008 with the manufacturer Osram.
But the filigree models, often floating on thin wire, also seem to improvise - in fact, they were technically sophisticated, right through to his latest works, such as "Silver Cloud" for the Residenztheater München from 2019. For Angelika Nollert, director of the Neue Sammlung München she "the sophistication in simplicity".
You can see "Ingo Maurer intimate design or what?" until 18 October 2020 in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
