Tag Archives: cabinet

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Sam Maloof, Cradle Cabinet

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sam maloof cradle cabinet photo by gail worley
All Photos By Gail

“When you’re working, there’s a communion between the object-maker and the material, [and] it transcends into something much greater,” said  furniture designer and woodworker Sam Maloof.  “When you make something and someone likes it, enjoys it and all, you’re paid tenfold.”

sam maloof cradle cabinet photo by gail worley
Cradle Cabinet, Detail

Maloof was one of the United States’ preeminent woodworkers during the second half of the twentieth century. In 1966, Paul J. Smith, Director of the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), invited Maloof to show his Cradle Cabinet in a thematic exhibition, The Bed. A masterpiece of woodworking skill and sensitivity, the cabinet is also innovative in its design, combining all of the functional needs of a newborn’s nursery into a single piece of furniture.

sam maloof cradle cabinet photo by gail worley
Installation View

Photographed in The Museum of Arts and Design in NYC.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Josef Frank’s Flora Cabinet

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flora cabinet by josef franks photo by gail worley
All Photo By Gail

It was at the 2019 Salon Art + Design that we spotted this very rare and early first edition of the Flora / Model 852 Cabinet (1937) created by Austrian architect and designer Josef Frank (1885 – 1967). The cabinet was part of a prolific collaboration with Estrid Ericson, of the Swedish interiors brand Svenskt Tenn, which produced and retailed the piece. This piece was manufactured in 1950.

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Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Skyscraper Cabinet By Paul T. Frankl

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skyscraper cabinet by paul t frankl
Photos By Gail

In 1927, Paul Frankl wrote, “In my own creations for the modern American home, I have kept within the architectural spirit of our time,” citing the New York City skyline as his most powerful design source. Indeed, the architecture of Manhattan is reflected in every detail of Frankl’s Skyscraper Cabinet, including its simplicity, continuity of line, flat surfaces, sharp and clean moldings, quality of restraint, and overall feeling of power. Not even 18-inches deep, Frankl’s cabinet was designed to conserve space in small city apartments. See other examples of Paul Frankl’s Skyscraper-influenced designs Here and Here.

skyscraper cabinet by paul t frankl photo by gail worley

Photographed in the Art Institute, Chicago.

 

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Ettore Sottsass, Cabinet No. 56

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ettore sottsass cabinet no 56 photo by gail worley
All Photos By Gail

Ettore Sottsass’ late furniture for Gallery Mourmans liberated the artist from the ordinary constraints of the market and quantity. The collaboration gave him license to pursue the vast poetic and sculptural potential of perhaps his favorite of all design archetypes, the Cabinet.

ettore sottsass cabinet no 56 photo by gail worley

As with Cabinet No. 56 (2003) these pieces read as prototypes, concepts and sculpture. Each cabinet in this series is a study in materials, structure, form, color, and visual and sculptural effects — homages to his friends and design masters.

ettore sottsass cabinet no 56 photo by gail worley

Photographed in The Met Breuer in NYC as part of the 2017 – 2018 Exhibit, Ettore Sottsass: Design Radical.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Lacquered Wood ‘Sunset’ Cabinet By Pierre Cardin

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Pierre Cardin Sun Cabinet 2
Photos By Gail

What a treat it is to experience the Pierre Cardin exhibit Future Fashion, currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum. I admit to being unaware that Cardin also made furniture until I saw a selection of his amazing woodwork staged amongst his retro-space-age fashions. This cabinet, which emulates a sunset above ocean waves, is from 2018.

Pierre Cardin Sun Cabinet 3

Cardin’s passion for woodworking began as a child in central France. Later, he created furniture inspired by the skies, landscapes, and forms of nature, using traditional woodworking and lacquer techniques that correspond to the handiwork in haute couture fashion. For this reason, Cardin described his handmade cabinets, tables, dressers, and chairs as “couture furniture” and utilitarian sculptures. Cardin intends his furniture, like sculpture, to be place so that the viewer can see if from all sides and directions.

Pierre Cardin Sun Cabinet

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion Will be on View at The Brooklyn Museum Through January 5th, 2020.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Display Cabinet By Louis-Desiré-Eugène Gaillard

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Gaillard Display Cabinet
All Photos By Gail

Like the side chair designed by Hector Guimard, seen just to the left of this cabinet in the bottom photo of this post, Louis-Desiré-Eugène Gaillard’s Display Cabinet (1900) incorporates bold, animated, plant-like forms in its decoration. Gaillard exhibited similar furniture at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, also known as the Exposition Universalle, which helped popularize architecture and domestic objects with fluid lines and whiplash curves.

Gaillard Display Cabinet
Cabinet Design Detail

This cabinet was part of a larger set of dining room furniture that would have been marketed to both middle and upper-middle class consumers. A key idea of design reform at the turn of the 19th century was that well-designed objects should not be reserved only for the wealthy.

Gaillard Display Cabinet

Photographed in the Art Institute, Chicago.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Ore Streams Filing Cabinet By Formafantasma

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Filing Cabinet By Formafantasma Installation View 1
All Photos By Gail

Seemingly random bits of e-waste make up the Ore Streams collection of office furniture, designed by Italian duo Formafantasma.

Filing Cabinet By Formafantasma

Cabinet (2017)  is a clear glass-encased filling cabinet created from up-cycled aluminum computer cases embellished with a digital print of the surface of Mars, a reference to the extra-terrestrial origins of gold, which is widely thought to have arrived on earth via a meteorite shower.

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