Image Courtesy of David Gill Galleries, All Other Photos By Gail
My favorite design show, Salon Art + Design, wrapped up last week and I’m so excited to start featuring all of the amazing art furniture that I was lucky enough to see in person at the Park Avenue Armory. To kick things off, let’s take a look at the Dune Table, designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid (1950 – 2016). Continue reading Eye On Design: Dune Table By Zaha Hadid
All Photos By Gail
Paolo Buffa (1903 – 1970) was an Italian architect and designer best known for his designs of mid-century furniture. Characterized by a melding of tradition and modernity, he used a combination of low-profile, rectilinear, and hardwood forms to produce his most classic pieces. This pair of Rose-colored Velvet Upholstered Armchairs from the 1960s are examples of his dedication to superior craftsmanship.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Mid-Century Armchairs by Paola Buffa
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Alvar Aalto’s bentwood furniture designs were among the many ground breaking utilitarian items to emerge from the Bauhaus school designers. The Model 41 Bentwood Lounge Chair (1931 – 32), designed for Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium, demonstrates the radical possibilities of bentwood in its graceful, scrolling form, devoid of right angles and sharp geometry.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Model No. 41 Lounge Chair By Alvar Alto
All Photos By Gail
The Metropolitan Museum of Art does not often invite visitors to sit directly on the art, but they have made an exception for these Washington Skeleton Side Chairs (2013), designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, which can be found in the gallery where the 2020 Holiday Tree is on display.
These delicately balanced, precisely engineered chairs emerged from the design process for the façade of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, which opened in Washington DC in 2016. David Adjaye developed an intricate lattice form that was an investigation of the geometry, materiality, light and shadow.
Both functional in its shading role, and poetic in its abstract visual qualities, this screen borrowed from African design patterns but also paid homage to the history of enslaved blacksmiths and their ironwork for ornamental gates in southern cities such as New Orleans and Charleston.
Utilizing the smaller scale of furniture as an agile testing ground for these architectural ideas, Adjaye produced what he describes as a “narrative about skin, form and structure.“ Here, he shapes the skeletal, ribbed surfaces to mimic the form of a seated person, resulting in a cantilevered, ergonomic silhouette that almost disappears when in use. Made of die-cast aluminum, then powder coated and copper plated, the chairs are manufactured by Knoll International.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
All Photos By Gail
Rediscovered Venetian glass techniques inspired James Powell and Sons to experiment with making light and lithe shapes at its Whitefriars Gassworks factory.
Among the new forms invented were these ethereal vases with rippling rims and opalescent colors. The firm also made simpler shapes, such as the footed goblet.
The featured ‘Straw Opal’ glass vase (circa 1890) was originally designed by Architect Philip Webb for Red House, the home his design partner, William Morris.
Photographed in the British Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.