Assessment surveys rarely create buzz in telling us how we got from there to here, yet the speed in which design has evolved to transcend national/international boundaries to redefine the relationship between art, design, and craft leaves us breathless and only eager for more.
An imaginative exhibition “European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century,” at the High Museum of Art, is the first comprehensive look at a particularly fertile period showcasing a number of iconic works from the postmodernism to modernism period. Represented are first generation European designers who shaped the movement: Ron Arad, Marc Newson and Philippe Starck; and then those born after 1960 – Jurgen Bey, Maarten Baas, and Marcel Wanders. Divided into periods: the Postmodernist tradition – Decorative, Expressive; the Modernist Movement – Geometric Minimal, Biomorphic and Neo-Pop; and lastly Conceptual Design – Neo-Dada/Surreal and Neo-Decorative.
Many of the 200 works by 117 designers on display are firmly entrenched in the zeitgeist and while others have been laid to rest.
Oh, where are you now? Philippe Starck’s “Hot Bertha Kettle” for Alessi was hailed for its design, but had a shelf life of seven years when it was eventually deemed too complicated for actual use. Considered part of Decorative Design movement that lead the way toward globalization, its chief characteristics were marked by a revived interest in pattern, ornament, and color on form that was either vernacular in nature or high style.
Here to stay. Entrenched in the public’s consciousness, “less is more,” the basis of Geometric Minimal style captures the essence of the modernist tradition with its spare, sophisticated forms reduced to the absolute minimum in form and material.
Neo-Pop is fun, colorful and straightforward as seen in Tom Dixon’s brilliantly light inflatable forms. A good interpretation of Pop Art’s popularity during the 1960s and 1970s when the line between “high” and “low” art was less defined. Since 2002, when Tom Dixon launched his shop in London, the Tom Dixon brand has become one of Britain’s best export selling lighting and furniture to 52 countries.
Sensuous and inviting. Using industrial technology inherent in the materials properties to create undulating organic forms found in the natural world, Biomorphic Design has propelled the influential careers of superstar industrial designers such as Marc Newson and Ron Arad with many of their pieces refashioned for massproduction.
Is it art? Yes, said the Neo-Dada/Surrealists who approach design first and foremost as art. Drawing upon the Dada/Surrealist traditions, the RADI created a “Whippet Bench” which illustrates the interplay between image and volume and between graphic design and three-dimensional shapes. It also references the historical use of animals in furniture in a tongue and cheek manner and, true to its Surrealists origins, asks one to sit on the back of man’s best friend.
Organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum with Kingston University in London, the exhibition at the High Museum in Atlanta is seen within the historical context of the Museum’s impressive collection of 19th and early 20th century American decorative arts. Through August 29, 2010. http://www.high.org/ (404) 733-4437.
