This article summarizes several art installations on display in New York City. It describes Grimanesa Amorós's LED "Bubbles" sculpture in the windows of 125 Maiden Lane, which features undulating LED tubing composed to look like bubbles. It also mentions Smiljan Radic's installation "Underground Passages" at the Queens Museum, consisting of tunnels and rooms below ground level for visitors to walk through. Finally, it briefly references an exhibition of works by Jesús Rafael Soto at the Whitney Museum of American Art, known for his works incorporating movement and light.
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Doyle Lane: Clay Paintings, which opened in May
at Gerard O’Brien’s Landing at Reform Gallery,
shines a spotlight on the career of an overlooked
artist from the California modern era. Doyle Lane
worked as a ceramist, painter, and muralist af-
ter moving from Louisiana to Los Angeles in the
1950s to attend art school. As an African-Amer-
ican artist in a marketplace that had not yet em-
braced diversity (to say the least), Lane earned a
steady living through the years, often cold-calling
architects and designers to show his portfolio in
search of commissions for his mosaic tile work.
Having been advised by art school classmates to
avoid ceramics because, as Lane later put it,“that’s
mainly for white people,” he rejected this con-
ventional wisdom and established a reputation
in the field, developing a unique glazing process
that makes his pieces stand out to this day for
their shimmering colors. The master mid-century
ceramist Otto Natzler counted himself one of
the many admirers of Lane’s work, and was re-
portedly unwilling to consult with anyone else on
matters related to glazes. Among contemporary
collectors of ceramics, Lane’s geodesic clay pots
have earned him something of a cult following.
O’Brien, who deals in decorative arts through the
adjoining Reform Gallery, notes that Lane’s pot-
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tery tends to “draw people with an eye for design,
people who are ‘makers’ much like Doyle himself.”
The Landing’s exhibition showcases Lane’s oth-
er applications for his ceramic glazes. In the 1960s,
during the height of L. A.’s “Birth of the Cool”
period, he began to paint directly on clay tablets,
creating abstract geometric patterns with col-
ors intended to interact directly with natural
light. The show features around a dozen of these
pieces on loan from the California African
American Museum and several private collec-
tors. A filtered glass pane allows sunlight to
illuminate them during the day, as Lane originally
envisioned. The centerpiece, however, is a wall-
sized mosaic mural of handcrafted tiles glazed
in different chromatics of red, a perfect example
of Lane’s mastery of color and material. O’Brien
describes transplanting and reconstructing the
mural, which was originally commissioned by the
famed L. A. architect Welton Becket for a Pasa-
dena bank (now owned by Berkshire Hathaway),
as “the most audacious thing” he has ever done at
either the Landing or Reform Gallery. It will all be
worth it, however, if it elevates Doyle Lane to his
rightful place among the luminaries of the Cali-
fornia modern movement. reform-modern.com
—Adam Dunlop-Farkas
SmithsonianserarPhotoInternationalschool
Doyle Lane: Discovering
an Overlooked Ceramist of
Mid-century Los Angeles
JoeMeadephotoBenserarPhotoCaliforniaAfricanamericanmuseumMeganGagephoto
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collectionofGaryandDianeCervent/PeterharholdtphotocontemporaryjewishMuseum
All the Best
Inventions
Dream Cars in Atlanta
In search of a (vicarious) thrill ride? Make your way to the
High Museum in Atlanta, where curator Sarah Schleun-
ing’s exhibition Dream Cars: Innovative Design, Visionary
Ideas is on view until September 7. Featuring some of the
rarest and most imaginative automobiles ever built, the
show includes seventeen “concept” cars from the 1930s
to 2001—cars that represented (and represent) the amaz-
ing possibilities for the future of driving.
Built by automakers, custom coachbuilders, and indepen-
dent designers, most concept cars are never intended for
series production but rather are the testing ground for inno-
vations that might find expression in automobiles produced
decades later. William Stout’s 1936 Scarab, for instance
(which he envisioned as essentially a living room on wheels),
could be considered the grandfather of today’s minivan, while
“L’Oeuf électrique,” a small, almost spherical electric “bubble
car” designed in 1942 by Frenchman Paul Arzens for his per-
sonal use during the German occupation of Paris, anticipated
the postwar boom for fuel-efficient mini-cars.
Chrysler’s sleek 1940 Thunderbolt offered a radical aero-
dynamic aluminum body, hidden headlights, enclosed
wheels, a retractable one-piece metal hardtop (controlled
by push buttons on the dashboard, which was leather-
covered and featured round, etched Lucite dials), and an
experimental semiautomatic overdrive transmission. Mech
anical engineer Norman Timbs hand-built his gorgeous 1947
Special, a futuristic doorless roadster capable of more than a
hundred miles an hour. General Motors’ 1953 Firebird I was
the first gas turbine-powered automobile built and tested in
the U.S. In essence a wingless jet plane for the road, it never
took off for myriad technical reasons. Then, there was the
three-wheeled Runabout with a built-in shopping cart.
These are just a few of the autos that make up the
story told in Dream Cars. In addition to the cars, the
exhibition includes conceptual drawings, patents, and
scale models. The accompanying catalogue is gorgeously
illustrated and packed with every bit of information you
could possibly want about these dream machines, built
and unbuilt. If you’re a car person and can’t get to the show,
the book alone is a must-have. highmuseum.org
—Eleanor Gustafson
F O R M & f U N C T I O N
JewishDesigners'legacyinSanFrancisco
A new exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in
San Francisco focuses on the impact Jewish designers, ar-
chitects, and patrons had on the spread of modernism in
the mid-twentieth century. The show—Designing Home:
Jews and Midcentury Modernism, on view to October 6—fea-
tures the work of more than thirty-five designers, from the
American-born Henry Dreyfuss and George Nelson to
émigrés like Richard Neutra, Anni Albers, and Gertrud and
Otto Natzler. Curated by Doald Albrecht, curator of archi-
tecture and design at the Museum of the City of New York,
the exhibition explores the proliferation of modernist tenets
from across the Atlantic Ocean throughout America and
makes use of domestic objects and architecture to illustrate
the acceptance of the style by corporate leaders and mid-
dle-class consumers. The exhibition highlights key projects,
institutions, and individuals that encouraged this transmis-
sion of avant-garde styles to the broader public, including
MoMa’s early Bauhaus exhibition and Good Design pro-
gram and the Walker Art Center’s Idea House.
The beautifully illustrated catalogue continues the exami-
nation of the network of designers and the diverse cultural
institutions that connected them. Asheville, North Carolina’s
Black Mountain College, Pond Farm in California, Chicago’s
Institute of Design, MoMa, the Walker Art Center in Min-
neapolis, and Arts and Architecture magazine are credited
with supporting Jewish designers and integrating their work
into the American mainstream so effectively that, by 1961,
Jewish architect Percival Goodman could proclaim that the
dividing line in America was not between different races
and religions, but between a culturally progressive avant-
garde and a retrograde rearguard. “Avant-garde,” he noted,
“belongs neither to Gentile nor Jew, but is the plight of every-
body who must rebel in order to breathe again, and in that
number there are numerous Jews.” thecjm.org
—Katy Kiick
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HermèsMishaKahnphotocourtesyofmadDanielAdricPhoto
Hermès introduces Petit h to America
Inspired by contemporary artists reusing discarded materials to form unique artworks, the
venerable French manufacturer of luxury goods Hermès has created Petit h, a collection of
exceptional objects made from discarded materials and objects salvaged from the compa-
ny’s workrooms. Using this concept known as “upcycling," Hermès craftsmen have conjured
a change tray in the form of a sports car in vivid pink alligator skin, a model sailboat with
an exquisite silk sail, a mirror frame embedded with metal bits and pieces from hardware, a
crystal bowl mounted on five wine glass stems, and an alligator-skin tablet case with leather
straps. Some of these unique objects are being presented for the first time in the United
States by Pascale Mussard, Petit h’s artistic director, who also happens to be the great-great-
great granddaughter of the saddle maker Thierry Hermès. The introductory American event
is being held at the Schindler House in West Hollywood on June 11. This private event is a
preview of the thirty-seven hundred pieces that will be available for sale online and at the
Petit h concept shop at the Hermès South Coast Plaza boutique in Costa Mesa from June 13
through June 29. hermes.com/petith
—Cynthia Drayton
Celebrating the Legacies
of Work Made by Hand
Reminder: NYC Makers at MAD
NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial, an exhibition that spotlights the creative
communities thriving across New York’s boroughs today opens on July 1
(to October 12) at the Museum of Arts and Design. It’s the first exhibi-
tion to be organized under the leadership of MAD’s new director Glenn
Adamson (see MODERN, Spring 2014, pp. 132-137) and will showcase
the work of approximately one hundred highly inventive artisans, art-
ists, and designers who create objects or environments through exqui-
site workmanship and skill. Exemplifying the museum’s ongoing com-
mitment to craftsmanship across all creative fields, the exhibition will
serve as a platform not only for makers who typically display their work
in a museum setting, but also those who operate behind the scenes.
madmuseum.org
In 1984 Cartier, the luxury jewelry maker, established the Cartier Foundation for
Contemporary Art, making it the first European company to support and raise
public awareness of the world’s great artistic talents through direct commission-
ing. Today, the Cartier Foundation has an impressive and rapidly developing col-
lection of over thirteen hundred works by 350 artists from forty countries.
To commemorate its thirtieth anniversary, the Cartier Foundation has invited
the public to a range of exhibitions, performances, and other events—which con-
tinue through March 2015—at its Jean Nouvel-designed headquarters in Paris.
The first part of the celebration presents the exhibition Vivid Memories featuring
iconic pieces marking events in the foundation’s history, including images from
its archives, photographs, videos, and film by artists such as Marc Newson, Ca
Guo-Qian, Peter Halley, and others. One of the highlights on David Lynch’s giant
LED screen is a live and impromptu performance at the foundation in 1990 of the
Velvet Underground with the late Lou Reed. This first part of the anniversary cel-
ebration can be seen through September.
From October through March, part two will address the past and the future
with an interactive scenography that will combine the visual and performing arts
using new technologies produced by the architectural and design studio of New
York’s Diller Scofidio and Renfro. foundation.cartier.com
—Cynthia Drayton
Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art celebrates its 30th anniversary
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Sinapearsontextileskirkbydesignjamesshanksphoto
Textiles and the City:
Design by Inspiration
In 1934 New York City opened an elevated rail system spanning Manhattan’s Lower
West Side. The freight line was an integral part of the city’s transport of goods
and materials until the rails were closed in 1980; but after some thirty dormant
years the structure reopened in 2009 as the High Line—a public park hovering
thirty feet above the busy streets. Today visitors to the High Line can mingle with
indigenous plants, contemporary art, local cuisine, and of course the city itself. It
is these elements that combined to inspire Sina Pearson’s rhythmic new Walking
the High Line series of fabrics. The four patterns are geometric and call to mind
everything from the railroad ties underfoot (in Tracks) and the surrounding layers
of square and rectangular glazing (in Windows) to the tall buildings in the distance
(Skyline) poking above the overlapping grid of modernist structures (in Facades).
The patterns appear in four color families combining the neutral grays of the metro-
politan landscape with bursts of color taken from the High Line’s array of wildflowers;
the adaptive reuse of the High Line also inspired Pearson’s interest in sustainable
design and use of recycled materials in the fabric. sinapearson.com
—Katy Kiick
New York City isn’t the only source of railway-inspired design. UK-based Kirkby De-
sign has taken the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the London Underground
to introduce its Underground Collection, which re-creates five iconic fabric designs
taken from the London Transport Museum. The original thick velvety moquette
fabrics were created under the direction of Frank Pick, publicity manager and lat-
er managing director of London Transport from 1907 to 1940. Pick commissioned
innovative designs for everything from station architecture, maps, and signage to
promotional posters and the fabric on the seats. To this end he enlisted the talents
of artists like Marion Dorn, Paul Nash, and Enid Marx, who was told that in addition
to looking well in artificial lighting, the material should “look fresh at all times, even
after bricklayers had sat on it.” Pick’s legacy of a well-designed commuter fleet en-
dured, and today’s re-creations draw from designs for 1930s buses, 1950s Green
Line coaches, and tubes from the 1970s and 1990s. The goals for today’s fabrics
are the same: innovative geometric designs in bold, contemporary color palettes,
and of course the ability to hide wear, tear, and bricklayer’s dust. kirkbydesign.com
—Katy Kiick
Another collaboration bringing the urban environment indoors is the new Grethe
Sørensen Collection produced for Wolf-Gordon. The Danish Sørensen combines
her traditional weaving expertise with an extensive knowledge of digital photog-
raphy and technology. She has developed a “random weave” method that com-
bines the two mediums by translating photographic pixels into thread. Her images
of light-filled cityscapes are abstracted into delicate, ethereal compositions effect-
ing the look of unfocused light. Millions of Colors, the upholstery fabric in her new
line, is aptly named. Sørensen’s random weave technique arranges pixels of basic
colors to create endless gradations that gradually shift into each other. While Sø-
rensen’s work is undeniably modern, it certainly owes a debt to the study of light
and color in impressionist painting and even the beauty of chance in surrealism.
Wolf-Gordon, an American company, released Sørensen’s line in March, which in-
cludes three versions of the Millions of Colors fabric and twenty-six colorways of
her three wall-covering patterns. wolfgordon.com
—Katy Kiick
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Gaetanopesce'soffice(3)Bottom:SebastianPirasPhoto
Gaetano Pesce: Homage to
the Master in a Major Rome
Retrospective
“I find him more interesting than any other industrial designer,” says the collector
Alberto Eiber of Gaetano Pesce. “Everything is an experiment and unique. It is
purposeful that each piece is imperfect and irregular.” Eiber, who lives in Miami
Beach, is a major collector of Pesce’s work, both large and small, and has followed
his career for several decades.
This summer, a major retrospective devoted to Pesce's work will open at
MAXXI, the Roman museum devoted to art and architecture of the twenty-first
century. The exhibition will include some eighty pieces conceived and executed
during Pesce’s full career, from the 1960s, when, starting in his student years in
Venice, he was part of the collective Grupo N, to the present. He has lived in New
York since 1980 and before that, resided in Paris for fifteen years.
Pesce’s work ranges from architecture, interior design, and urban planning to
industrial and furniture design and art. It is generally figurative (if in an abstract
way) and often fulsome. He has long used unexpected materials and ideas to
explore difficult and emotionally charged contemporary themes from love and
peace to violence and war—often expressed in complex, even contradictory, and
yet compelling ways. “I think he is on a different level,” Eiber says.
At MAXXI, Gaetano Pesce: The Time of Diversity (June 26 to October 5) will rely
on an unusual exhibition design in which the works will be displayed on moveable
panels, allowing visitors to change the order, the point of view, and the organiza-
tion. Pesce describes it as being like a “mutant labyrinth” that is intended to ex-
press his notion that diversity is fundamental to life. One gallery will be given over
as “the ice room,” to be kept at a frigid temperature and featuring a video instal-
lation that will address such concepts as the difference between “official time”
(which is the division of the year into months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and is
what we live by, tracking them on our watches, cell phones, and clocks) and the
more metaphysical or existential notion that no two instances of time are ever, in
our lives, exactly alike.
The museum’s courtyard will feature an eight-meter (somewhat more than
twenty-six feet) version of Pesce’s famously anthropomorphic UP chair (based
on the female body) that will actually be a structure housing video installations
dealing with the global issues affecting women (the idea is for visitors to enter
into the “womb” of the chair, which was designed forty-five years ago). Pesce
conceived this as both a celebration of his most iconic design and as a caution-
ary message, which only underscores the depth and intricacy of his thinking.
fondazionemaxxi.it
—Beth Dunlop