At the heart of Spanish design history lies the work of Miguel Milá, whose philosophy finds one of its clearest expressions in the TM family. The letters TM come from Tramo Móvil, Spanish for “movable section,” after the shade that is hoisted up its stem like a sail up a mast. But the name also carries a more personal story. It nods to TRAMO, the company Milá founded in postwar Spain to produce his own designs. TRAMO itself was an acronym for Trabajos Molestos (Tedious Tasks), the name he gave as a child to an imaginary service agency in charge of the chores he had to take on as the youngest sibling in the family.

The letter following the shared root reveals the material or defining feature of each design: M for madera (wood), A for aluminio (aluminum), C for cromada (chrome), and D for Diana, the latter because it shares the same circular base and economy of means as its namesake product. Miguel’s names are like his objects: their depth lies in their simplicity.

This exhibition follows the TM family from its first prototypes, in the mid-1950s, to the present day. Seventy years on, the idea is still the same: a lamp you raise and lower by hand, made with no more than it needs. Along the way came new materials, finer mechanisms, and new members of the family. Each one improved the lamp without touching the idea behind it.