Displaying items by tag: design

Rock star David Bowie was a goldmine for Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art in late 2014 and early 2015.

A multimedia exhibition that zeroed in on the iconic rock star's life and career drew nearly 200,000 people to the Museum during the show's run — the most for a single exhibition in the MCA's 47-year history. Now the MCA is gearing up for a new show "Pop Art Design" that could hold similar appeal.

Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life, New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
On view through November 1, 2015
This blockbuster exhibition is the first to examine Frida Kahlo’s keen appreciation for the beauty and variety of the natural world, as evidenced by her home and garden as well as the complex use of plant imagery in her artwork. Featuring a rare display of more than a dozen original Kahlo paintings and works on paper, this limited six-month engagement also reimagines the iconic artist’s famed garden and studio at the...

The Vancouver Art Gallery on Tuesday unveiled Herzog & de Meuron’s conceptual design for its new museum building in downtown Vancouver. The 310,000-square-foot building features more than 85,000 square feet of exhibition space—more than double the museum’s current size — and a new education center with a 350-seat auditorium, workshops and a resource center for research, library services and artist archives.

Modern design takes innumerable forms, making it difficult to define in an absolute way. From a streamlined Electrolux vacuum cleaner from the 1930s to Eero Saarinen's iconic Tulip Chair, all modern design objects explore the space where form and function meet and lessen the gap between art and the everyday. Below is a hand-picked selection of some of the country’s top museums for viewing, exploring, and learning about the fascinating and innovative world of modern design. 

1. The Renwick Gallery
Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20006
For information call 202.633.7970 or visit www.americanart.si.edu/renwick

The beautiful and ever-evolving Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., set the tone for design museums in America. The first purpose-built art museum in the country, the institution shifted its focus to...

1. Gropius House
68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, MA 01773
For more information visit www.historicnewengland.org

Walter Gropius, the founder of the highly influential Bauhaus School, designed this striking home in 1938 after moving from Germany to Massachusetts to teach at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Combining traditional elements of New England architecture, including wood, brick, and fieldstone, with innovative materials such as glass block, acoustical plaster, and chrome banisters, the Gropius House was one of the most shockingly modern and progressive homes ever created in the United States. Modest in scale, the Gropius House adhered to the Bauhaus’ design philosophy, which emphasized simplicity as well as efficiency. The house, which is owned by Historic New England, still contains the Gropius family’s possessions, including a significant collection of furniture designed by Marcel Breuer and...

Heralded as the centerpiece of Expo Art Week -- Chicago’s citywide celebration of all things arts and culture -- Expo Chicago (September 17-20, 2015) has emerged as a decidedly innovative and multifaceted art fair. Now in its fourth year, Expo Chicago, which focuses on modern and contemporary art and design, champions established and emerging artists alike -- a quality that has earned it a stellar reputation among a wide range of collectors, dealers, enthusiasts, interior designers, and curators. According to Tony Karman, the President/Director of Expo Chicago, “There is so much to look forward to at this year’s fair...With artwork from 140 galleries from 16 countries and 47 cities, it is a one-stop opportunity to survey the work and trends in the...

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art announces the promotion of Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher to the Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design and head of the Department of Architecture and Design. In her new role, Dunlop Fletcher will set the overall vision for the department, overseeing acquisitions, exhibitions and publications. She previously served the museum as assistant curator from 2008 to 2013, and as associate curator since 2013.

“We are grateful to Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher for her tremendous contributions to the museum,” said Neal Benezra, SFMOMA director. “I am certain she will continue to expand the Department of Architecture and Design when the new SFMOMA opens in spring 2016, with her breadth of knowledge, curatorial expertise and deep connections to our community of innovative designers.”

Two teams, from Barcelona and New York, have been awarded joint first place in a competition to design a new home for the Bauhaus Museum Dessau.

The jury for the international competition selected two proposals for the new museum, which will preserve and present a collection of products created by the influential German art and design school.

Did Otto Hermann Kahn, a banker, financier and arts patron, have a rival Long Island estate on his mind as he built his own palatial house, Oheka, in Huntington in 1917?

There’s no written evidence of that, said Joshua Ruff, chief curator of the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages in Stony Brook, where he has organized the exhibition “Gilding the Coasts: Art and Design of Long Island’s Great Estates.”

Back in 2013, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, acquired Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House from architect/designer team Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino. The only catch was that the house was located 1,200 miles away in Millstone, New Jersey. Staff at Crystal Bridges quickly got to work devising a plan to disassemble, transport, and rebuild the house -- a stunning example of one of Wright’s iconic Usonian homes -- on the museum’s sprawling 120-acre campus. As the project nears completion, the museum has announced that it will officially unveil the structure to the public on November 11, 2015, the fourth anniversary of Crystal Bridges’ opening.

Wright designed the Bachman-Wilson House in 1954 for Abraham Wilson and his wife, Gloria Bachman, whose brother, Marvin Bachman, was an...