Jeannot Cerutti

Jeannot Cerutti is an interior designer, lighting designer, industrial designer and architect. He studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Marseille (National School of Architecture of Marseille) in France.

Jeannot Cerutti designed for, among others: VeArt, Artemide, Giorgio Armani, Kenzo, McDonald’s, Sawaya & Moroni. He lives in Turin, Italy.

VeArt

VeArt (initially written as Ve-Art) was founded in 1965 by Sergio Biliotti and Ludovico Díaz de Santillana. The company is generally described as a Venetian glass and lighting producer, active from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s.

Ludovico Díaz de Santillana (1931–1989) was born in Rome. Trained as an architect in Venice, he also worked in education and became closely connected to the Murano glass world through his marriage to Anna Venini, daughter of Paolo Venini of the renowned Venini glass company. After Paolo Venini’s death (1959), Ludovico Díaz de Santillana took on a leading role at Venini (together with the Venini family), a position he held for decades. He died in 1989.

VeArt produced art glass and lighting, often characterised by bold forms, strong colour contrasts and the expressive use of Murano techniques. In later sources and the vintage market, Mario Ticco is frequently mentioned as an artistic director associated with VeArt, reflecting the firm’s close ties to the Venetian glass scene.

Designers and artists associated with VeArt (as credited in catalogues and market documentation) include, among others: Tobia Scarpa, Renato Toso, Noti Massari, Toni Zuccheri, Paolo Zanotta, Umberto Riva, Lino Tagliapietra, Luciano Bartolini, Gigi Basso, Luisa Calvi, Giorgio de Ferrari, Sergio Asti and Guido Rosati, among others.

In the early 1990s, VeArt was acquired by Artemide. Artemide’s own company timeline records the acquisition in 1991 and notes that it enabled the launch of mouth-blown glass collections under the Artemide umbrella.

VeLuce: VeArt also marketed lamps under the name VeLuce. Both names appear together in the same catalogues. In these catalogues the VeLuce models are typically identified by numbers only rather than product names. VeArt was positioned as the more “high-end” line, but the design quality of VeLuce is certainly not inferior.

Artemide

The Artemide Group is based in Pregnana Milanese, Italy. The company is probably best known for the Tizio desk lamp designed by Richard Sapper in 1972. The company is also famous for the Tolomeo desk lamp, designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina in 1986. Artemide produced many other beautiful lamps en furniture over all those the years.

Designers who have collaborated with the company include Mario Botta, Sir Norman Foster, Ettore Sottsass, Enzo Mari, Neil Poulton, Karim Rashid, Giò Ponti and many others.