Designer and Painter Pirro Cuniberti, Creator of Iconic PR Floor Lamp, Dies at 92

Pirro Cuniberti, the Italian designer celebrated for creating the 'PR' floor lamp for Sirrah in 1970, passed away at age 92. His artistic career began with studies at Bologna's Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1948 under the tutelage of Giovanni Romagnoli and Giorgio Morandi. That same year, a visit to the first post-World War II Venice Biennale introduced him to Paul Klee's work, which profoundly shaped his artistic direction. Beyond design, Cuniberti was a painter known for delicate, eccentric abstractions that later evoked comparisons to Giorgio Griffa. His exhibition history includes participation in the Quadriennale of Rome in 1965 and 1972, and the XII Premio Spoleto in 1966. Major surveys of his work were held at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1991 and at Bologna's Museo Archeologico in 2003, with the latter traveling to the Casa del Mantegna in Mantova. His first solo show in the United States took place at New York's ESSO Gallery in 2008, following his initial solo exhibition at the Circolo Culturale in Bologna in 1957.