Video Series
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Wendell Castle:
Remastered at MAD Stack lamination, the process of gluing layers and layers of hardwood into thick volumes that are then carved into forms has been practiced for two centuries. But there is no artist whose work has come to shape this technique, to elevate it into an artistic enterprise, and to popularize it, more than Wendell Castle. |
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Moderno: Design for Living in Brazil
Mexico, Venezuela, 1940-1978 The interest in mid-century design has flourished since the birth of the collectible design market around 2000, and this territory has since taken the leading role in the dynamic international marketplace. The newcomer is Latin American furniture, which has recently positioned itself strongly in the major auction houses. The postwar years witnessed an exciting and artistic energy in Latin America, and as national art scene flourished, new design vocabularies were invented. Architects and designers were seeking to participate in the creation of new and modern national identities, and design became a political factor in the industrialization. |
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Ettore Sottsass
1955-1969 Ettore Sottsass was a giant designer who had made monumental contributions to the story of modern design. He is mainly known for his iconic Valentine typewriter which he designed for Olivetti and for his distinctive architecture. He is even better known as the founder of the groundbreaking Memphis in the 80s, the group which was strikingly influential for its plastic laminated furniture in vivid colors, hailed by the press, and brought Sottsass the ultimate global fame. But his career started long before founding Memphis. Sottsass had put the foundation to his radical style, provocative ideas, and the rebellion against post-war modernism back in the 50s and 60s. |
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Alessandro Mendini's
Proust Chair When Mendini first introduced the Chair in 1978, it was a daring example of an interweaving Impressionist art and design. It was hailed as sensational, brilliant, and unconventional; its heyday lasted nearly a decade. With its rich colors, intricate carvings, rich ornamentations, and handcraftsmanship, this icon of Italian Postmodernism was based on the most traditional 18th-century chair that everyone knows. But in addition to serving as a chair, the Proust came to tell a story and to celebrate the life of French novelist Marcel Proust. Inspired by visiting the places of Proust's origins, Mendini sought to create a chair for the man who authored “In Search of Lost Time,” the masterpiece considered the greatest novel of modern times. It had to be based on Proust's visual and material world, his desires, memory, sensations, and experiences, including the 19th-century Impressionist Movement which was in its prominence when Proust was growing up in Paris. |
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T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings
Designing Modern America The British-born, American tastemaker Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings was a thinker whose innovative ideas on interior décor and furniture design had a formative impact on American domestic culture during the postwar years. His face was known to millions living in those years as he turned his portrait into a trademark logo, featured in promotions, advertisements, interviews, and magazine articles. For decades, the stylish "Gibby," as he was called, stood at the forefront of American design, yet his legacy has only recently been rediscovered. |
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Design in the
Space Age The Cold War year witnessed the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union. Men discovered the moon, women discovered the mini skirt, and design became most glamor and futuristic in representing the space age. David Bowie sang about Major Tom, the fictional astronaut who traveled into space and became lost during the journey. The film Diamonds Are Forever featured the chic Elrod House, the ultimate bachelor pad of James Bond, built in Palm Springs and designed by John Lautner, and Paul Rudolph designed his own homage to space. Googie was the architecture mode which was born in Southern California, and came to express the space age, and the Art of the Living Movement was formulated by a new generation of designers seeking to express the space age for upscale lifestyle. |
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Charles James
Beyond Fashion One of my most favorite design events, opening the NY spring every year, also known as the best fashion event of the year, is the opening of the annual show at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is always surprising, exciting, well-done, and mostly remarkable. This time, taking place at the new Anna Wintour Costume Center, is the superb exhibition “Charles James: Beyond Fashion.” It comes to celebrate the glamour career of one of the more important and intriguing figures in the history of fashion couture. To the visionary James, fashion was much more than a form of design. Clothing to him, was a form of art, and he, the artist declared more than once to be the most copied person in the entire world. |
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Le Corbusier's
LC4 CP It is one of the most iconic pieces of furniture created in all times, known in its commercial name LC4, or the Chaise Longue. Designed at the Le Corbusier atelier in Paris in 1928, this icon tells a story of a fascination with machine-age aesthetics and with the possibility of creating a chair that perfectly mirrors the body's natural curves. “Relaxing machine” in the words of Le Corbusier. Its moveable frame adjusts along the base from upright to full recline, providing a variety of sitting angles. The design was signed by three members of the French avant-garde movement: Le Corbusier, his cousin and partner Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand, who became known for the memorable photo of her reclining on one of the first models, wearing a daringly short skirt. |
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David Ebner
Fifty Years of Studio Furniture I was thrilled to hear that Moderne, a design gallery specializing in Studio Furniture, is opening the first comprehensive overview show of designer/craftsman David Ebner, one of the most ambitious and accomplished figures of the Movement today. It was at Moderne Gallery, that I was first introduced to Ebner's work by its founder Bob Aibel whose commitment to promoting, preserving, and disseminating the knowledge on the Studio Furniture Movement I admire. The show, which coincides with the publication "David Ebner: Studio Furniture" by Nancy Schiffer, covers the total scope of his life's work, from pieces created in his days as a student at the legendary School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the mid 60's, to his current work. |
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Barry Friedman,
The Eclectic Eye If tastemakers are those who, through thinking out of the box and promoting an intelligent taste, popularize new directions in aesthetics, then Barry Friedman is definitely a tastemaker. For nearly five decades, he has established himself as one of New York's leading art dealers. When it comes to design, Friedman has been responsible for creating trends, unearthing neglected historical periods, discovering new talents, creating some of the world's leading design fairs, and guiding such legendary collectors as Andy Warhol and Barbara Streisend. Icons of modern design have made their way from his gallery to museum collections and many of world's finest homes. Next month, Christie's will celebrate his retirement with a three-day auction entitled "Barry Friedman, The Eclectic Eye." |
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Maskit:
Crafting a Genuine Israeli Style The closing show of Israel's Fashion Week made a memorable, stimulating night full of nostalgia and fun. It was a night that celebrated two icons: Maskit, the recently-revved legendary fashion brand initially launched in 1954, and its founder, the extraordinary pioneer Ruth Dayan who celebrated her 97th birthday that night. All proceeds from the show went to the neonatal unit at the Sheba Medical Center, headed by my friend Dr. Tzipi Strauss. During its days, Maskit was as an Israeli as falafel, is representing the melting pot that stood at the core of young Israel. It sought to fuse cultured, nationalities, and ethnicities of immigrants from various countries into one unified style. Maskit's myth came to play a distinctive role in Israeli history, representing the high-brow of the Israeli taste. |
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Gilded New York
For the occasion of the first exhibition, called "Gilded New York: Design, Fashion, and Society," the gallery was decorated to look like a jeweled luxurious apartment, evoking a unique moment when, for the first time, New Yorkers asserted themselves as international tastemakers and their city as a world capital. Herringbone wood flooring, decorative wallpaper, mirrored window shutters, and draperies in the taste of the Gilded Age, spanning the last decades of the 19th century leading into the turn of the 20th century. |
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Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights
Collecting modern and contemporary design has become one of the most dynamic, influential territories in the international marketplace, a territory that stands at the forefront of style and taste. While at first it was fueled mainly by the fine art market, collecting design has emerged as a discipline in its own right; one that not only dominates interior design, but also attracts those who value living with beautiful things. The design market is now a global barometer of trend forecasting, signifying status and culture. Collecting design inspires scholarly analysis, art fairs, museum exhibitions, and monographs, and was cited recently by the Wall Street Journal as a lucrative avenue of investment. |
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E 1027
Designed by Eileen Gray Built in 1926 by Eileen Gray, E1027 is a small white villa on top of a cliff in the French Riviera village of Cap Martin. This iconic home invokes a special allure for all lovers of modern design. Not because of its breathtaking Bay of Monaco views, and not because of the murals that architect and next-door neighbor Le Corbusier painted there (and was famously photographed while doing so), but because it is one of the earliest masterpieces of modernist domestic architecture. E1027 was built of reinforced concrete, composed of geometrical and asymmetrical distribution of volumes. Its form is characterized by lack of ornament, and an absence of both decorative embellishment and historical references. Its abstraction, the flat roof, and the play between geometrical elements comprise its definition as a modernist dwelling. |
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Visiting the Kimbell Art Museum
Designed by Louis Kahn Most design critics agree that Louis Kahn was the most talented and influential American architect of the mid-century years. He advanced modernism beyond the fading International Style into immense, poetic expression, and became an inspiration for generations of architects to come. Kahn designed only a few of buildings, mainly for art, educational, and religious institutions, all of which are destinations. Some of his works include the Yale Art Gallery (1953), a commission he received while working at the Yale School of Architecture; the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California (1965), depicted in this iconic photo by Ezra Stoller; the Phillips Academy Library in Exeter, New Hampshire (1972); the Unitarian Church in Rochester New York (1969); and of course, the National Assembly Building of Bangladesh. |
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Visting Knoll
The Barcelona Chair No other single chair has captured the spirit of modernism more than the Barcelona Chair, considered one of the best-designed chairs of all times. While commonly believed to be created by Mies van der Rohe, the Barcelona Chair was in fact a collaboration with his colleague and lover, Lilly Reich. The two created this chair for the 1929 German Pavilion at Barcelona's International Exposition. The German Pavilion held no trade exhibits, but rather served as an exhibition in its own right, showcasing the achievements of the Modern Movement in Germany. |
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Visiting an Atlas of Modern Landscapes
Le Corbusier Last week, I visited "An Atlas of Modern Landscapes" at MoMA. This exhibition tells the story of a legend, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret. He called himself Le Corbusier, and he changed the course of architecture. Born in Switzerland in 1887, Le Corbusier began his career as a painter, and remained an artist for the entire scope of his career. He was an artist when designing interiors, furniture, and villas; he was an artist when building residential towers, and when planning cities across the globe. Le Corbusier demonstrated that simplicity does not indicate lack, but rather a sophisticated, stylish, and intelligent choice. He is widely considered among the most influential architects of our time, not just in the west, but throughout the world. He believed in the power of architecture to elevate humanity. |
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A Stroll Through
Central Park West Manhattan is the archetypal cosmopolis. Its character is perfectly represented by the architecture of Central Park West. This boulevard overlooks 840 acres of public grounds and boasts some of the city's finest architecture. Buildings that speak various languages, each one looks different, each brings its own flavor, but together they create a stimulating and fascinating visual fabric. At the heart of Central Park West stands a legendary addresses, the Dakota, famous for being the home of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Built in 1884, when the Upper West Side was nowhere near the heart of Manhattan, the Dakota was designed by Henry Hardenbergh. |
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Visiting the Exhibition
Against the Grain In furniture design, wood is considered the most traditional and therefore the most conservative of all materials. After all, the ancients crafted their furniture out of wood and it has been the principle furniture material for centuries. A new exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design, which I visited last week, offers a dramatic and new perception of wood, presenting it as a cutting-edge material in contemporary art and design. It features Objects by artists, designers, and craftspeople who harness new energy and fresh thinking. In their hands, wood is far from the old-fashioned, but rather its a progressive material, full of creative energy. |
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Greta Magnusson Grossman
Last week, I visited an exhibition called "Greta Magnusson Grossman - A Car and Some Shorts." This great retrospective, which opened recently ate R 20th Century Design, explores the legacy of Swedish-American architect Greta Magnusson Grossman. Her career in America barely spanned two decades and she was one of the only female industrial designers in the mid-century period. Despite these challenges, Grossman was celebrated for her prolific output of unique homes, interiors, furnishings, light fixtures, and exhibitions. R 20th Century Design gallery has featured Grossman's objects for over a decade, and was one of the first institutions to recognize the significance of her work. |
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The Metal Quilting of
Paul R. Evans II At the New York School of Interior Design in New York City, I host a program called Collecting Design. In a recent session devoted to the American Studio Movement, I interviewed Jeffrey Head, whose book on mid-century designer Paul Evans was recently published. Jeffrey shared his enthusiasm for one of the most innovative figures of the American Studio Movement. Today, Paul Evans' work is highly esteemed. His unique furniture is collected worldwide, the Michener Art Museum plans a retrospective, and Jeffrey Head authored a monograph that documents the accomplished career of Paul Evans. |
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Harry Bertoia,
Sculptor of Sound From 1953 until his death in 1978, Bertoia focused his creative energies almost exclusively on sculpture. In his monumental work for the Standard Oil Building Chicago's tallest skyscraper until the Sears Tower was completed, designed by postwar modernist Edward Durrel Stone in 1974, his mission was to craft a sensual relationship between nature, architecture, and art. Now, Bertoia's sculptures, which are integral to the story of Chicago modern architecture, are the latest offering at Wright auction house. |
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Denise Scott Brown
and the 1991 Pritzker Prize Something is shaking the architectural world. When American architect Robert Venturi received the Pritzker Prize in 1991, the most prestigious award of the architectural profession, he was surprised. He thought that his wife and partner of decades, South-African-born Denise Scott Brown, would be invited to share the honor. His request that Scott Brown be included in the award was denied. At the ceremony, he acknowledged, in his words, her crucial contributions. |
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Visit to
Ayala Serfaty's Studio This week I visited the atelier of Ayala Sarfaty in the Jaffa district of Tel Aviv. I try to pay a trip to her remarkable working space every time I visit the White City. I met Ayala five years ago when she had a solo show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, an installation called SOMA. I remember being moved by the illuminated objects that looked like layers of white clouds, as light as drifting feathers, floating above ground. It suggested an underwater world of ultimate mystery and beauty. This type of museum installation was like a fantasy; it absorbed me for hours and I wanted to visit over and over again. |
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Liria Palace Furniture
by Armand Albert Rateau It is considered one of the most magical, poetic, and private interiors of the 20th century, yet, it consisted of just one bedroom, a bathroom, and a boudoir. It was created in the Liria Palace in Madrid for the 17th Duke of Alba, a Renaissance Man who served on such political appointments as Ambassador to Great Britain. He commissioned the legendary interiors for the apartment of his new wife, the stylish Duchess of Alba on the occasion of their marriage in 1920. |
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Helvetica:
Elegant & Minimalist It is the most celebrated and recognizable typeface of all times. It is clean, efficient, and Modernist. It is called Helvetica. It was developed in 1957 in Switzerland and has since become a cultural phenomenon. In Latin, Helvetica means "Swiss." It was introduced during an era when Swiss design was very popular. Helvetica was favored by advertising agencies, and quickly appeared in corporate logos, transportation systems, fine art prints, and in myriad uses worldwide. It has been recognized as reliable, and a smart choice for business. |
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Gourmet Food Trucks
There's a new design phenomenon ... on wheels! They are so distinctive that they stand out in the built fabric of New York. Even on busy avenues, they can be easily identified, even from high above in office towers. Devotees follow them on social media. Foodies swoon. The trend I am talking about is Gourmet Food Trucks. They are noted for exceptional graphics, innovative kitchen design, and restaurant-quality cuisine. They are mobile kitchens, relying on creative design to maximize small spaces, and on brilliant visuals to market their exclusive products. The days of outdoor food being defined by hot-dog pushcarts are well behind us. |
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Bicycle Innovations
In recent years bicycles have come to play a far greater part in our world, emerging as an environmentally sustainable alternative to the car. For some urban professionals, they are the primary form of transport, projecting the image of a healthy, economical lifestyle. New York City has spent millions creating bicycle lanes, and just partnered with Alta Bicycle Share to make thousands of bicycles available to subscribers. These self-service docking stations will launch in the summer of 2012. London, Paris & other cosmopolitan cities have introduced bike-share programs, based in the railway system stations. |
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Whiteware
White tableware, also know as whiteware, is becoming increasingly sophisticated and interesting. Designers are exploring sculptural and unorthodox forms that revisit the entire notion of white tableware. The result is extraordinary dining possibilities. Setting a dining table is one of the most accessible ways to express one's personal taste. However, nothing dresses up a table like cutting edge, sophisticated whiteware to complement a contemporary lifestyle. Whiteware occupies a central role in the legacy of dining design, and dates back to the very beginning of refined dinnerware production in 18th-century Europe. After centuries of research and endless experimentation, Europeans finally discovered the secret formula of making white porcelain. |
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Central Park Ramble
Nature by Design The English garden is a picturesque landscape, a style that emerged in England during the Romantic period of the 18th and 19th centuries. It revolutionized the way gardens were designed. The traditional garden was formal, symmetrical and manicured; the English garden looked almost as if it was untouched nature. Lakes, sweeps of rolling lawns, groves of trees, Gothic ruins, bridges, all designed to create an idyllic pastoral landscape. That style of gardening spread all over the world and soon dominated landscape design of 19th century America. Perhaps the most ambitious example of an English garden is Central Park. |
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Put a Cork in It
Cork! It's not just about wine stoppers and wedge shoes. Cork's sustainability and multiple design uses are phenomenal. Cork is the outer bark of a special oak tree. After each harvest the cork tree fully regenerates its precious bark and can be harvested over and over again until the tree reaches approximately 200 years of age. Cork is an amazing material: it's elastic, waterproof, fireproof, and buoyant. Plus, it's sustainable, environmentally friendly, and easily recyclable. Most cork today comes from Portugal. |
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The 9/11 Memorial:
the Power of Simplicity The new World Trade Center Memorial, designed by Michael Arad, opens on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. This new memorial honors victims of September 11th and the victims of the earlier terrorist attach -- the 1993 bombing of the North Tower. It is called "Reflecting Absence." The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, once the tallest buildings in the world, were designed by the American architect Minoru Yamasaki in 1965 and completed in 1973. They were minimalist structures of glass and steel that symbolized a modernist corporate image. They were often derided as lacking in character but over the past decade, the Twin Towers have become icons of lost dreams. Paul Goldberger calls them Martyrs, and Martyrs are beyond criticism. |
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The Legacy of
George Nakashima George Nakashima was an architect who called himself a woodworker. For nearly five decades, he lived in New Hope Pennsylvania, creating furniture out of magnificent planks of wood. He established himself as one of the fathers of the American Studio Movement. Nakashima formulated a distinctive language of design that expressed his love for the natural properties of trees. Rather than discarding the edges, the cracks, and even signs of termites, traits that traditionally were considered imperfect, Nakashima preserved and highlighted them. His most important contribution to the history of modern design is what became known as "free-edge" furniture. There is a lot of copying in the marketplace, but there are also designers who are revisiting and reinventing Nakashima's legacy. They move beyond simple quotations with fresh and original designs. |
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Playgrounds
It is hard to believe, but in 1821, America already had its first playgrounds -- but they were no more than sandboxes. Playgrounds have changed tremendously since. The formula of slides and swings is no longer the only choice. Now, playgrounds are being created by design stars who provide new experiences informed by contemporary design sensibilities. Playgrounds have become a design phenomenon. These brilliant spaces of great design ideas, instill discipline, foster creativity, and stimulate independent thinking. They depart from the traditional playground, and propose new ways for kids to interact with each other. |
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Pop-Up Architecture
Temporary structures have been recognized as a new way of expressing extravagant design ideas that would not have been voiced otherwise. In this episode, Daniella discusses the Electrolux Cube Pop-Up Restaurant by Park Associati; the Chanel Pavilion by Zaha Hadid; and the Roc-Pop-Shop, featuring Jay Z's new premium line of Rocawear apparel, designed by D-Ash. Pop-ups are like magic tricks, surprising and delighting audiences with whimsy and flourish. They are especially suited to urban environments, because pop-ups are a distillation of the changing city landscapes, a cutting-edge approach to creating unique, mobile structures out of limited materials and space. Pop-ups are a sophisticated trend made possible by design. |
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Knoll Textile
Daniella Ohad Ph.D. visits her Alma Mater, the Bard Graduate Center, to explore their gallery's exhibition, Knoll Textiles: 1945 - 2010. The show celebrates the creative process of this landmark design company, which is known more for its furniture than for its innovative textiles. Rather than floral chintz and bright velvets, popular in American homes of the 50s, Knoll produced fabric inspired by the simplicity of men suites to upholster its modernist furniture. Daniella states that Knoll's great success in modernizing textiles is thanks to Florence Knoll Bassett, the genius behind Knoll's textile machine. |
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Backpacks
Ancient Future Years ago backpacks were only popular with boy scouts, mountaineers or soldiers. They were heavy, unwieldy, unattractively shaped and made of dull colored canvas. But in recent times backpacks have become a high design and high fashion item as at home on the streets of New York as on the slopes of the Rockies. |
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Sustainability at PS1
Once a year at the beginning of the summer, PS1 organizes an architectural show in its outdoor courtyard. It is called the annual Young Architects Program and it provides visitors with an outdoor recreational area created of recycled, low impact materials in a very small budget. |
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Felt
In Contemporary Design The exhibition Fashioning Felt at the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum has generated an extraordinary attention to this humble material. Whether produced by hand or machine, whether made of wool, silk, synthetic fibers, or recycled materials, the possibilities of manipulating felt into remarkable shapes and ornaments are endless. While most fabrics are woven or knitted, felt is a unique type of textile in that it is a dense, non-woven material that is made of compressed fibers.
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