happening now…
DESIGN WITH THE OTHER 90%: CITIES
With over half the world’s population living in cities, urban migration is one of the world’s most critical issues. Innovative design solutions—60 projects in 23 countries—are the focus Cooper-Hewitt’s exhibition, the second in a series.
UNITED NATIONS, VISITORS LOBBY MAIN GALLERY,
FIRST AVENUE AT EAST 45 STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK,
http://designother90.org
© Haas&Hahn
Favela Painting project, Rio de Janeiro. Artists: Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, Haas&Hahn (Netherlands), with Santa Marta community youth and Coral Paint Company.
ZAHA HADID: FORM IN MOTION
High-profile, high-concept architect Zaha Hadid has made numerous forays into product design, many of which are in this exhibition. The Pritzker Prize winner has created a sculptural environment as a backdrop to a wide range of designs, including a prototype for the three-wheeled Z-Car I, a set of unidentifiable containers for coffee, tea, milk and sugar and strappy shoes for Lacoste and Melissa.
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART,
26 STREET AND BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PARKWAY, PHILADELPHIA, PA,
(215) 763-8100, www.philamuseum.org
ENGLISH TASTE: THE ART OF DINING
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
In celebration of its inaugural special exhibit, the Rienzi—Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts house museum—is putting on a grand spread: a 1760s dining-room extravaganza, complete with Georgian silver place settings and faux foods created from recipes by Mrs. Elizabeth Raffald, eighteenth century England’s answer to Martha Stewart.
Ivan Day
Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s feast for the eyes: gilded jellied fish on a serving platter
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects in collaboration with Kenny Shachter/ ROVE Gallery London.
Zaha Hadid designed the Z-Car I, made by GTM Cars of lightweight carbon fiber composite.
upcoming…
NEW GALLERIES FOR THE ART
OF THE ARAB LANDS, TURKEY, IRAN,
CENTRAL ASIA AND LATER SOUTH ASIA
Perfect timing: Just when all eyes on the Middle East, the Metropolitan Museum is reopening fifteen renovated galleries, housing the museum’s famed collection of Islamic art. Of 12,000 artworks in the collection, some 1,200 will be on view at any one time. (Permanent installation.)
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART,
1000 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK,
(212) 535-7710,
www.metmuseum.org
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Qa’a reception room from Damascus, Syria (A.H. 1119/A.D. 1707), is dazzlling with mother-of-pearl, marble, ceramic tiles, colored glass, gold and tin leaf.
MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL
All brings together over 130 works by Maurizio Cattelan, known for his satirical and highly provocative sculptures. Strung from the oculus of the museum’s rotunda, the site-specific installation includes one of the artist’s most controversial pieces, La Nona Ora (1999), a sculpture of Pope Paul John II felled by a meteorite. The retrospective also marks Cattelan’s announcement to quit making sculpture—a sort of grand retirement party.
SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM,
1071 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK,
(212) 212-423-3589,
www.guggenheim.org © Maurizio Cattelan, photo by Paolo Pellion di Persano, courtesy the artist
Maurizio Cattelan, Him, 2001
© Paul McCarthy, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Paul McCarthy, White Snow Male Forest, 2010-2011.
PAUL MCCARTHY:
THE DWARVES, THE FORESTS
Building on the exploration of his 2009 "White Snow"
artist Paul McCarthy continues his wickedly funny version
of the German fairy tale with ten monumental sculptures.
HOLIDAY THORNE ROOMS
Miniature, to-scale historic holiday rooms with lilliputian trimmings have long attracted visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago. This year, ten rooms will be decked with historic finery: the elaborate English Drawing Room of the Victorian period (complete with Prince Albert’s tannenbaum, or Christmas tree); the modern-era California Hallway with an Otto Natzler menorah; and the never-before-seen Americana Room from Marshall Field V’s private collection.
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO,
111 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
(312) 443-3600,
www.artic.edu/aicCourtesy The Art Institute of Chicago
English Drawing Room of the Victorian Period, 1840–70, created in 1937,
is the most elaborate of the 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms—and a favorite at
he Art Institute of Chicago.
FAUSTO MELOTTI:
SCULPTURE AND CERAMICS
A member of Italy’s avant-garde circle, artist Fausto Meliotti (1901–1986) was known for working freely with a variety of materials: plaster, ceramics, and metal. Featured are the artist’s signature metal sculptures and a rare selection of polychrome ceramics from the fifties and sixties.
The new season of the hit tv series Mad Men isn’t scheduled just yet, but fans might find some solace in two new shows–design shows, that is–one looking at California modern, the other at twentieth century furniture created by the Mobilier National for France’s palaces and official residences. Mad Men might be enticed to venture beyond Manhattan!
CALIFORNIA DESIGN, 1930-1965:
"LIVING IN A MODERN WAY"
Courtesy of Barbara Mathes Gallery
Fausto Melotti, Contrappunto Libero, 1972
Think California mid-century design, and the irrepressible team of Charles and Ray Eames comes immediately to mind. Now, you can walk through their famous Case Study House #8 living room, which has been moved from their house in Pacific Palisades and reassembled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It’s just one of some 350 objects in "Living in a Modern Way"’s mostly upbeat look at modernism: ceramics, furniture, movie clips, toys, jewelry, textiles, photographs, even a sleek Airstream trailer. Central figures who led the way from the rigors of Bauhaus to the sunny, relaxed California style–Greta Magnusson, Mildred Sheet, Alvin Lustig, architects Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schlinder, and designers Greta Magnusson Grossman and Jock Peters–are all here, at least in artifacts and spirit.
Through June 3, 2012.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART,
5905 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA,
323-857-6000,
www.lacma.org Photo courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Eames Foundation.
The entire Eames House living room—with 1,864 items—was reinstalled
in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for "Living in a Modern Way."
MOBILIER NATIONAL
In 1964, France’s Mobilier National–which had decorated the nation’s palaces since the seventeenth century (mais oui, Louis XIV)-formed L’Atelier de Recherche et Création (ARC) to create uniquely French contemporary furnishings for the likes of President George Pompidou. In response to modernism’s hard-edged functionalism, the French, with their usual savoir faire, introduced curved, soft designs. ARC’s first gallery exhibition in the United States presents twenty rare furniture pieces. No need to wait for an invitation to the Palais de l’Eysée; Pierre Paulin’s designs are here.
November 8–February 11, 2012.
Photo © L’Oeil,
January 1969, courtesy of Mobilier National and Demisch Danant.
Modern à la française: Desk by Henri Lesetre, chair by Claude and Francis Xavier Lalanne, chair by Edouard Albert—all created under the auspices of Mobilier National’s ARC.
