Tag: Design

Art

Modern Lamps in Midcentury America

Post author By Hannah Pivo
Post date December 7, 2018
No Comments on Modern Lamps in Midcentury America

In 1950, the Museum of Modern Art and New York-based Heifetz Manufacturing Company announced a design competition for floor and table lamps, offering cash prizes and the tantalizing promise that Heifetz would put at least three-quarters of the winning designs into production. [1] Ultimately, eight table lamps and two floor lamps were chosen for manufacture from over 600 entries. [2] These lamps were exhibited at MoMA from March 27–June 3, 1951 (alongside drawings, diagrams, photographs of the designs), published in Arts & Architecture magazine, and offered for sale across the United States at numerous stores, including Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. in Chicago and Macy’s in New York and San Francisco. [3] Now, two of these lamps are on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum as part of Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America (Sept 28, 2018-Jan 6, 2019).

Tags Design, Exhibitions, lamps, Lester Geis, lighting, Marcel Breuer, Midcentury Modernism, Milwaukee Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Zahara Schatz

20th and 21st Century Design Art Behind the Scenes Curatorial Education Events Exhibitions

The House of Cards Project

Post author By Hannah Pivo
Post date October 25, 2018
3 Comments on The House of Cards Project

UWM-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts students (left to right) Anna Emerson, Paul Manley, and Jessica Schubkegel installing the House of Cards spiral. Photo by Ray Chi.

In the early 1950s, designers Charles and Ray Eames painstakingly arranged penny cars, pencils, pills, and papers to photograph for their House of Cards construction set. They probably never imagined that decades later, thousands of children and adults in the Milwaukee region would meticulously decorate their own House of Cards, let alone that these cards would be installed together in a towering spiral at the Milwaukee Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America.

Tags Charles Eames, community, Design, Ray Eames, Special Exhibitions

20th and 21st Century Design Art Collection Curatorial

20th- and 21st-Century Design: New Acquisitions Now On View

Post author By Hannah Pivo
Post date March 29, 2018
No Comments on 20th- and 21st-Century Design: New Acquisitions Now On View

Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870–1956), produced by Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna, Austria, 1903–1932), *Basket*, 1905. Silver and ivory. Milwaukee Art Museum, Purchase, with funds from the Demmer Charitable Trust, M2017.56. Photo by John R. Glembin.

Spring cleaning isn’t just for attics—the Museum’s Design Galleries were recently refreshed with a new coat of paint and numerous recent acquisitions. From turn-of-the-century silver to twenty-first-century furniture, these objects demonstrate the wide range of what we mean by “design” at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Tags chair, Design, Erich Dieckmann, Eva Zeisel, Furniture, Jonathan Muecke, Josef Hoffmann, plastic, seating, silver, tableware, Wiener Werkstatte

20th and 21st Century Design Art Collection Curatorial Exhibitions

Introducing: “Afrikando” by Jaime Hayon

Post author By Hannah Pivo
Post date February 6, 2018
No Comments on Introducing: “Afrikando” by Jaime Hayon

Jaime Hayon, designer, with Nason Moretti, producer, from left to right: *Umi (Life)*, *Saidah (Fortunate)*, *Chausiki (Born at Night)*, *Malawa (Blossoms)*, *Sauda (Dark Beauty)*, *Wambua (Rainy Season)*, and *Abayomi (Brings Joy)* from *Afrikando*, 2017. Milwaukee Art Museum, purchase with funds from the Jill and Jack Pelisek Endowment Fund, the Sanford J. Ettinger Memorial Fund, and by exchange, M2017.23.4-7. Photo by John R. Glembin.

Among the many eye-catching objects in the exhibition Jaime Hayon: Technicolor, the delicate etching, dangling earrings, and dazzling glass surfaces of Afrikando are particularly alluring. This set of seven glass vessels is on view for the first time in the exhibition of work by Spanish artist-designer Jaime Hayon. Designed by Hayon expressly for the Milwaukee Art Museum’s permanent Collection, Afrikando fuses the tradition of glassblowing with the designer’s delightfully fresh contemporary sensibility.

Tags Design, Exhibitions, glass, Jaime Hayon, Special Exhibitions

20th and 21st Century Design Art Curatorial Exhibitions

Jaime Hayon: Technicolor

White ceramic bowl with green embroidery — Hella Jongerius, (Dutch, b. 1963), produced by Royal Tichelaar Makkum (Makkum, Netherlands, founded 1572), *Bowl*, from the collection *Repeat*, 2002. Porcelain and cotton. Milwaukee Art Museum. Purchase, with funds from the Demmer Charitable Trust, M2015.12.

On view now through March 25th in the Bradley Family Gallery, Jaime Hayon: Technicolor brightens up wintertime in Milwaukee with a colorful splash of fun and fantasy. The energetic exhibition features work from two decades of the Spanish artist-designer’s career, including textiles, ceramics, glass, drawings, and playground equipment. These works represent a wide range of approaches to making, thinking, and viewing, while also remaining unified by a refreshing sense of playful whimsy.

Jaime Hayon trained in his native Madrid and in Paris before directing the design department at Fabrica, the Benetton-funded design and communication academy in Italy, for nearly a decade. In 2003, he left Fabrica to focus on his own studio practice. Hayon Studio now has offices in Italy, Spain, and Japan and is acclaimed worldwide.

Tags Ceramics, Design, Exhibitions, glass, Hella Jongerius, Jaime Hayon, Jonathan Muecke, Mathias Bengtsson, Special Exhibitions, textiles

20th and 21st Century Design Art Collection Curatorial Exhibitions Prints and Drawings

John Rieben’s Homage to Josef Müller-Brockmann

Post author By Milwaukee Art Museum
Post date May 30, 2017
1 Comment on John Rieben’s Homage to Josef Müller-Brockmann

Polar bear growling next to text that says Chicago has two great zoos — John Rieben (American, b. 1935), *Chicago Has Two Great Zoos*, 1965–1966. Photolithograph. 50 × 35 in. (127 × 88.9 cm). Lent by John Rieben.

The exhibition currently on view in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Bradley Family Gallery (through June 25) is How Posters Work. On Thursday, April 6, 2017, the museum hosted a program in conjunction with the exhibition called Local Luminaries: Poster Provocation. This gallery tour welcomed luminaries from the Milwaukee area to share their unique perspectives about the works in the show.

Tags Design, graphic design, How Posters Work, John Rieben, postrrs

20th and 21st Century Design Art Curatorial

And All That Jazz!

What did socialites in Milwaukee read during the jazz age of the late 1920s?

Well, naturally, everyone was reading The Modern Milwaukeean!

The magazine circulated from September of 1928 through the spring of 1930 and billed itself as the key publication for keeping up with the latest technological trends and everything modern. It proposed modernity as a way of life, but what really set The Modern Milwaukeean apart was its modern graphic design.

Tags 20th century design, Art Deco, constructivism, Design, graphic design, Milwaukee, Modernism, Warner Kreuter

Art Collection Curatorial European

From the Collection–Christopher Dresser, Pitcher and Claret Jug

Post author By Catherine Sawinski
Post date May 19, 2015
No Comments on From the Collection–Christopher Dresser, Pitcher and Claret Jug

Christopher Dresser (English, 1834-1904) Manufactured by Watcombe Terracotta Clay Company (Torquay, Devon, England, established 1867) Pitcher, designed 1870-75; produced by Watcombe of Torquay. Terracotta or red stoneware, gilding 7 1/8 × 5 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. (18.1 × 13.97 × 13.34 cm) . Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Daniel Morris and Denis Gallion M1991.323

In 1898, the artists periodical The Studio called Christopher Dresser “perhaps the greatest of commercial designers imposing his fantasy and invention upon the ordinary output of British industry.” This seems an appropriate description for an Englishman who was interested in art but first trained in botany, and then found inspiration for his designs both in the ancient past and traditions of Japan.

Looking at two of Dresser’s designs in the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum–a pitcher produced by the Watcombe Terracotta Clay Company and a claret jug produced by Hulkin & Heath–you can see how he applied his own personal motto to his work: truth, beauty, power. The sleek and angular vessels lack the decoration that most people associate with the Victorian period, which would have been at its height in the 1870’s. They look like something from the 20th century!

It may surprise you then, that Dresser was also known for his interests in flat patterning.

Tags christopher dresser, Decorative Arts, Design

Behind the Scenes Exhibitions

MAM Behind the Scenes: David Russick, Exhibition Designer

Post author By Emma Fallone
Post date June 3, 2014
1 Comment on MAM Behind the Scenes: David Russick, Exhibition Designer

David Russick sitting with papers on the walls behind — David Russick, Exhibition Designer. Photo by the author

This is the second in a series of blog posts highlighting a variety of different positions within the Milwaukee Art Museum. Each day, hundreds of visitors enter the Milwaukee Art Museum to stare in awe at the incredible wealth of artworks within the museum’s collection. But what can too often go unrecognized is the equally awe-inspiring work of the many museum staff members, without whom the museum in its current state could not exist. “MAM Behind the Scenes” is a blog series written by Digital Learning intern Emma Fallone to showcase the wide range of positions that make up a museum, and to reveal just a few of the many people whose work makes the Milwaukee Art Museum a source of inspiration and education.

Can you give a brief description of your job, in thirty seconds or less?

To use an analogy: the exhibition designer is the person who shows up on moving day when you’re moving into a new apartment, and helps you to arrange everything so that the space is used efficiently and everything looks really good! At the Milwaukee Art Museum, the “apartment” is usually the special exhibition space, which is cleared out and rearranged for each new show. So, every time we have a new special exhibit, it’s like one tenant is moving out and another is moving in – and their belongings are the artworks which are going to be displayed. The exhibition designer works with the curator to figure out what goes where, so that you don’t have your kitchen appliances in the bathroom, so to speak!

Tags Design, exhibition design, graphic design, interviews, MAM Behind the Scenes, museum staff, museum studies

Art Behind the Scenes Curatorial

Making an Exhibition, Part 1: The Artwork’s Story

Post author By Mel Buchanan
Post date August 7, 2012
11 Comments on Making an Exhibition, Part 1: The Artwork’s Story

Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein Marks, ca. 1925. Photo courtesy Bauhaus Archiv, Berlin.

Ever wonder about the details of developing an art museum exhibition? I have to admit, an advanced degree in art history does not directly prepare a curator for the loan agreements, budget constrictions, press relationships, and conservation concerns that must be negotiated and balanced along with telling a great story.

In order to break down and share what I think is a pretty fascinating process, I’ve put together a six-part blog post series that addresses the steps I took in developing the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Grete Marks: When Modern Was Degenerate exhibition (on view September 6, 2012 – January 1, 2013).

Every exhibition should start with and keep at its core great artwork and a meaningful story. For me, this exhibition germinated when I encountered a Bauhaus-trained ceramist named Grete Marks in 2007.

I’d never heard her name. I wasn’t a Bauhaus expert.

But I felt something for her teapots.

Tags Behind the Scenes, Design, Exhibitions, Grete Marks