Art Donovan's La Luna Torchieres

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 5th 2010 at 2:01PM

My favorite lighting and steampunk genius, Art Donovan recently contacted me to show off a new set of one-of-a-kind pieces. The piece above is the 'La Luna' Torchiere. It is made of cast bronze and with a hand-painted shade that looks like a big full moon. The posts of the lamps are solid bronze and cast acrylic. The lamp shade is painted on the sides in what he calls "Museum Blue" (textured, translucent tones of burnt umber and phthalo blue). Each of the two Rococo lamp bases are mirror images of each other with slight variations. They are signed and dated by Art Donovan.

Art says the pair of torchieres were inspired by the time he spent curating the world's first Steampunk Art Exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, the University of Oxford, UK. Over the last couple of years he got bitten by the steampunk bug. Steampunk combines modern technology with a style sensibility taken from the Victorian era. These torchieres capture a bit of an Art Nouveau sensibility with a slightly spooky edge. I could easily picture them in a movie lighting the lab of some madly brilliant and misunderstood scientist. The pair of torchieres measure 33" tall x 13" wide and are $9500.

Tags: art donovan, lamps, lighting, steampunk, torchiere