November
8, 2003 – January 11, 2004
At Right, Top to
Bottom:
Markow Residence,
Garofalo Architects, 2001.
The design for the Markow Residence adapts to key elements
of the original home and takes its cues from its
surroundings in a greater Chicago area suburb. Basic
House, Martin Ruiz
de Azua, 2000.
Weighing but a few ounces, Basic House is the most portable
of homes, able to be carried in a pocket like a handkerchief. do
break, Frank Tjepkema and Peter van der Jagt, 2001.
The philosophy behind the do create products was to make
the products come alive. do break is a vase that is
meant to be broken to form a crackle pattern but does
not shatter. Nipple
Chair, Part of the Placebo Project, 2001.
Nipple Chair includes a sensor that causes two protrusions
in the chair’s back to vibrate when the sensor
comes into contact with the sitter. Koers,
Zeinstra, van Gelderen
Model of Tumble House 1998. Originally commissioned as
an alternative to traditional storage sheds, Tumble
House is meant to be a piece of garden furniture that
can be used no matter what its orientation.
Over the past decade, the increasing number
of designed objects available to the consumer
has created a greater awareness of all aspects
of design, from architecture to furniture, fashion,
graphics, and products for the home. How we live
and travel and how we function at home and at
work are all influenced by this new culture of
design, and the three-dozen pieces featured in
this exhibition ask fundamental questions about
how we interact with the built environment.
A multidisciplinary exhibition drawn from international
sources, the show has four themes: extraordinary
objects and spaces that refer to and transform
common objects; multifunctional objects that
change both shape and use; portable structures;
and objects that force users to reconsider their
basic relationship to the product, leading to
new uses and expectations.
“ People are very conscious these days
of new communication technologies, of the huge
amount of intelligence that can fit in a small
chip,” explains Raymund Ryan, curator of
architecture at Heinz Architectural Center. “At
the same time, there is a reappraisal of ordinary
things, and the notion of the ordinary is different
now.”
For example, the London-based designers Anthony
Dunne + Fiona Raby’s Placebo Project places
electronic objects such as a global satellite
positioning device into household furniture. “At
first the furniture looks very banal,” says
Ryan. “They deliberately photograph their
pieces in very ordinary houses and backgrounds,
as if to say that their work is not about high
design. Anybody can use it.”
The do create collection—developed
by Droog Design in collaboration with the Amsterdam
advertising agency KesselsKramer —demands
that the consumer interact with the product as
a way of customizing it. do break is
a ceramic vase with a coating that allows it
to crack but not splinter; do swing is
a light fixture that hopefully supports the weight
of even corpulent partygoers. “You make
it your own,” says Ryan. “It’s
not some pure thing, the traditionally precious
design object on its pedestal.”
Architectural elements are a key aspect of the
exhibition, with many young designers reconsidering
the potential of the shipping container. “High
Modernists before World War II and then again
in the 1960s also experimented with pod architecture,
but what might be different now is that the projects
are more realistic and less utopian,” says
Ryan. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s Paper
Loghouse was developed after the 1995 earthquake
in Kobe, Japan, as a response to the sudden need
for quick, practical housing. The house sits
on a base of Kirin beer crates, the walls are
cardboard tubes, and the roof is canvas.
“ These designers are less interested
in inventing a new pod per se, but in seeing
what can be done with what already exists, hence
the name Strangely Familiar,” adds
Ryan.
The exhibition runs concurrently with Very
Familiar, a celebration of the first 50
years of the Department of Decorative Arts
at Carnegie Museum of Art, and a study of the
philosophy and themes that run through
the collection.
Recent Acquisition:
Driftwood, 2001-2002, by Peter Doig Peter
Doig, British, 1959,
Driftwood, 2001-2002, oil on canvas,
Carnegie Museum of Art, The Henry Hillman Fund.
Peter
Doig’s landscapes and nature scenes are
painted from photographs, both his own and those
found
in newspapers, postcards, record covers, movie
stills, and other sources. Born in Scotland in
1959, Doig grew up in Canada and moved to London
for further studies, receiving his Masters in
Art from the Chelsea School of Art in London
in 1990.
For five years he was a trustee of the Tate Gallery
in London, and in 2002 he moved with his family
to Trinidad. “
This picture is unusual in the artist’s oeuvre
by virtue of its shape,” explains Curator
of Contemporary Art Laura Hoptman. “Although
Doig has painted very large landscapes for
the past 10 years, he rarely
has painted a vertical composition like this one.”
Doig
often works in a series, using the same motif
numerous times, sometimes referring to the images
as flashbacks or memories. Carnegie Museum of
Art
received
as a gift a large, finished painting on paper, also titled Driftwood, which
is similar in design. “According to the
artist,” says
Hoptman, “the
work on paper was begun before the painting, but completed after the painting
was finished. Thus, it served both as a study and an addendum to the larger
work.”
Considered
one of Britain’s
leading artists, Doig was nominated for the
prestigious Turner prize in 1994. While many of
his landscapes
to date have been
reminiscent of his upbringing in Canada, his recent work is beginning to
reflect his current home in the Caribbean.
Impressionist
Prints Celebrate Light, Life, and Friendship
Childe Hassam: Prints and Drawings from the Collection
Frederick
Childe Hassam always rejected the stylistic label
of “Impressionist.” Hassam (1859–1935)
began his career in Boston as a wood engraver
and illustrator, and started painting in the
Impressionist style after an inspiring trip to
Paris between 1887 and 1889. He turned to printmaking
in 1915, first etching and then lithography,
eventually producing some 375 etchings and 42
lithographs.
Known mostly for his landscapes,
Hassam’s
abiding interest is capturing the effects of
light and air
in the natural environment. He and his wife, Maude,
moved to New York City in 1889, and summered in New
England or in East Hampton, where he found inspiration
for much of his work. He also did a series of paintings
and lithographs of patriotic flag displays in New
York during World War I, as well as scenes of lively
street life or skyline views. His natural affinity
for graphic arts may be seen in his explorations
of color and pictorial structure.
“
These drawings lend insight into an essential
truth about Hassam’s picture-making,” explains
Linda Batis, associate curator of Fine Arts. “He
drew and painted what he saw before him.”
Despite
his resistance to the label, Hassam became
the best known American painter in the Impressionist
style. He enjoyed a long friendship with John
Beatty, director of Fine Arts at Carnegie Museum
of Art
from 1896 to 1922, and exhibited more than
90
paintings at the Carnegie Internationals, the
museum’s
annual exhibition of contemporary art. He served
on the exhibition’s award jury in 1903
and 1904, and again in 1910, during which he
was given
a solo exhibition. He also served as an informal
advisor to Beatty on purchases of work by other
artists.
In 1900, Carnegie Museum of Art became
the first American museum to acquire one
of Hassam’s
paintings with the purchase of Fifth Avenue
in Winter. In 1907, Beatty purchased 30 drawings
directly from
the artist, one of the largest such groups
in any museum collection and—according
to the artist—some
of his best. The etchings and lithographs on
view in this exhibition are from a group of
60 prints
donated by Hassam’s widow in recognition
of the close relationship between the artist
and Carnegie
Museum of Art.
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