Twentieth-century design often coalesces with kitsch, but nowhere more fervently than in the field of popular lighting. A beacon of inspiration to many artists over the years, the modern electric lamp seems, nevertheless, to have exceeded all other artifacts in its capacity to be awful.In shedding light on a familiar household object with a limitless capacity to marry flagrant disregard for function to absurd shapes and incompatible colors, this heavily illustrated study gives popular lamp design the attention it deserves.