Read all at: www.kinfolk.com/kinfolk-issue-twenty-travel-issue/
Monday, May 30, 2016
Kinfolk #20: The Travel Issue
Kinfolk Issue Twenty: For the summer edition of Kinfolk, we want to draw attention not only to far-flung locations but also to those who choose to stay local and see their surroundings anew. Worldly experiences don’t start and end at the baggage claim, and it’s what we do with those memories once we’ve unpacked our suitcases that really makes a difference in the long run. After all, travel is a mentality as much as an action, so it doesn’t matter if our adventures start on the side of an alpine mountain or end in our living rooms. Simply getting out there and interacting with the world around us can be just as satisfying as any poolside retreat.
Monday, May 23, 2016
"The House That Modernism Built" at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
"The House That Modernism Built" will present the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art's rich mid-20th-century art collection alongside furniture, textile, and ceramic holdings on loan from various institutions including Eames Office, Herman Miller Archives, the Gregg Museum of Art & Design along with works from private collectors.
The exhibition will illustrate how the modern aesthetic shaped people’s lives during the 20th century throughout the United States and the affinity of aesthetic and philosophical principles that influenced art and design during this period. In particular, the show will emphasize process, examining how designers and artists considered and tackled projects and problems, and how the innovations in other disciplines from the sciences to the humanities influenced their direction and thinking. To trace the creative process and critical approach to problem solving, the exhibition will include prototypes, design plans, and manufactured pieces alongside drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures.
While the scope of the show will be international, it will draw attention to design innovations particularly embraced in the United States with a regional focus on production in North Carolina. The works date from 1920 through 1980, but the groundbreaking choices of material and manufacturing processes by makers such as Victor Vasarely, Zoltan Kemeny, Kenneth Noland, Roy Lichtenstein, Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, and Buckminster Fuller remain vital, revealing how these larger principles of modernism continue to resonate in our lives today.
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina (U.S.A.)
The exhibition will illustrate how the modern aesthetic shaped people’s lives during the 20th century throughout the United States and the affinity of aesthetic and philosophical principles that influenced art and design during this period. In particular, the show will emphasize process, examining how designers and artists considered and tackled projects and problems, and how the innovations in other disciplines from the sciences to the humanities influenced their direction and thinking. To trace the creative process and critical approach to problem solving, the exhibition will include prototypes, design plans, and manufactured pieces alongside drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures.
While the scope of the show will be international, it will draw attention to design innovations particularly embraced in the United States with a regional focus on production in North Carolina. The works date from 1920 through 1980, but the groundbreaking choices of material and manufacturing processes by makers such as Victor Vasarely, Zoltan Kemeny, Kenneth Noland, Roy Lichtenstein, Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, and Buckminster Fuller remain vital, revealing how these larger principles of modernism continue to resonate in our lives today.
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina (U.S.A.)
On View: March 24, 2016 - September 11, 2016
See more at: http://bechtler.org/Collection/House-that-modernism-built#sthash.hkTU7w7m.dpuf
Monday, May 16, 2016
Milan Fuorisalone 2016: Hella Jongerius celebrates Eameses in Vitra Pop Up Store
Vitra is moving into a temporary location as part of the Fuorisalone events in Milan’s city centre: CasaVitra, in the vicinity of Corso Como, exhibits the spatial installation 'Colour Machine, which is dedicated to the Vitra Colour & Material Library, presenting Hella Jongerius’ insights and inspirations about colours, textiles and materials. The lounge on the second level of CasaVitra is furnished with Eameses' products from the Vitra Home Collection, providing an inviting space where visitors can linger and enjoy the atmosphere.
Courtesy: yellowtrace.com
Monday, May 09, 2016
Jens Risom Talks About Working At 100 !
In the 1940s and '50s, Scandinavian furniture flooded the World - and one of the designers who left an indelible mark during that era was Jens Risom.
The Danish-born practitioner, who turned 100 on May 8, is one of the last living icons who shaped the movement we call midcentury modernism. The son of an architect, Risom arrived in the U.S. fresh out of school in 1938. He worked at an interior design firm before casting off on his own. While freelancing, he met Hans Knoll, and the two began collaborating on furniture and interiors projects. Working alongside Knoll, Risom eventually became the company's first designer, creating 15 of the 20 pieces in Knoll's first furniture collection from 1942. One of his most famous pieces is a lounge chair featuring a frame made from wood scraps, with a seat and back woven from nylon straps rejected from a parachute producer. The chair's lean nature was borne from the scarcity of resources during World War II, and showcased Risom's inventiveness.
After Knoll, Risom founded his own company and created everything you'd need to furnish a home, including upholstered sofas, case goods, tables, chairs, and desks. A testament to his breadth, he even designed a prefab beach house for his family that was covered in "Life magazine" in 1967.
Risom is still working today. Last year, he released a series of case goods in collaboration with the Atlanta-based designer Chris Hardy and recently worked with Design Within Reach to reissue a piece from one of his first collections, the T.710 table (which is on sale for $100 from May 8–15 in honor of his 100th birthday).
We sent a few questions to Risom via email about adapting the design, the popularity of midcentury modernism, and of course, appearing in the design-geekiest spread in Playboy history.
On the enduring popularity of midcentury design:
"First of all, I am not sure that all midcentury designs were all that great but the ones that remain I think are elegant, clean, simple, creative, and functional. The combination of form and function was essential and each designer had their own designs, their own vision, and their tremendous passion for what they were doing."
On still designing new pieces today:
"I have been lucky to work with people like Chris Hardy and DWR to keep designing. It has been very nice."
On appearing in a Playboy spread alongside George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, and Charles Eames:
"It was a great group and a lot of fun."
On reviving the T.710, which originally was produced in 1950:
"I wanted the T.710 to be clean, striking, affordable, and elegant. It was one of the only times that I worked with metal then as I really focused on wood. We kept the design the same although we looked at some different edge treatments—all relatively small but I wanted it to feel right. While some of the production processes were updated based on the manufacturer—like bending the metal—the design is the same. We used the original tables as the model."
On what he's most proud of in his body of work:
"I am as proud of the different designs as I am about how we thought through the total process, from quality control to operations. For example, when we designed case pieces, we did it so that we could make many common pieces (bases, drawers, etc.) and be able to exchange them amongst different designs. The goal was to increase quality and reduce costs."
On the state of contemporary Scandinavian design:
"I am 100 years old—not sure."
The Danish-born practitioner, who turned 100 on May 8, is one of the last living icons who shaped the movement we call midcentury modernism. The son of an architect, Risom arrived in the U.S. fresh out of school in 1938. He worked at an interior design firm before casting off on his own. While freelancing, he met Hans Knoll, and the two began collaborating on furniture and interiors projects. Working alongside Knoll, Risom eventually became the company's first designer, creating 15 of the 20 pieces in Knoll's first furniture collection from 1942. One of his most famous pieces is a lounge chair featuring a frame made from wood scraps, with a seat and back woven from nylon straps rejected from a parachute producer. The chair's lean nature was borne from the scarcity of resources during World War II, and showcased Risom's inventiveness.
After Knoll, Risom founded his own company and created everything you'd need to furnish a home, including upholstered sofas, case goods, tables, chairs, and desks. A testament to his breadth, he even designed a prefab beach house for his family that was covered in "Life magazine" in 1967.
Risom is still working today. Last year, he released a series of case goods in collaboration with the Atlanta-based designer Chris Hardy and recently worked with Design Within Reach to reissue a piece from one of his first collections, the T.710 table (which is on sale for $100 from May 8–15 in honor of his 100th birthday).
We sent a few questions to Risom via email about adapting the design, the popularity of midcentury modernism, and of course, appearing in the design-geekiest spread in Playboy history.
On the enduring popularity of midcentury design:
"First of all, I am not sure that all midcentury designs were all that great but the ones that remain I think are elegant, clean, simple, creative, and functional. The combination of form and function was essential and each designer had their own designs, their own vision, and their tremendous passion for what they were doing."
On still designing new pieces today:
"I have been lucky to work with people like Chris Hardy and DWR to keep designing. It has been very nice."
On appearing in a Playboy spread alongside George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, and Charles Eames:
"It was a great group and a lot of fun."
On reviving the T.710, which originally was produced in 1950:
"I wanted the T.710 to be clean, striking, affordable, and elegant. It was one of the only times that I worked with metal then as I really focused on wood. We kept the design the same although we looked at some different edge treatments—all relatively small but I wanted it to feel right. While some of the production processes were updated based on the manufacturer—like bending the metal—the design is the same. We used the original tables as the model."
On what he's most proud of in his body of work:
"I am as proud of the different designs as I am about how we thought through the total process, from quality control to operations. For example, when we designed case pieces, we did it so that we could make many common pieces (bases, drawers, etc.) and be able to exchange them amongst different designs. The goal was to increase quality and reduce costs."
On the state of contemporary Scandinavian design:
"I am 100 years old—not sure."
Courtesy: fastcodesign.com
Read all at: www.fastcodesign.com/3059632/jens-risom-midcentury-modern-pioneer-talks-about-designing-at-100/2
Read all at: www.fastcodesign.com/3059632/jens-risom-midcentury-modern-pioneer-talks-about-designing-at-100/2
Monday, May 02, 2016
News: "The Gifted Eye of Charles Eames" now in Athens
The Eames Office curated "The Gifted Eye of Charles Eames" in honor of Charles’s 100th birthday (in 2008). This celebratory exhibition revealed a side of Charles that many had never seen before: his wonderful ability to accentuate the beauty in everyday life through photography.
Charles had a life-long passion for photography that started at a very young age. In one of his 1970 Norton Lectures at Harvard University, Charles said that, just after his father’s death in 1918, he found a box of his dad’s old photography equipment: “Soon I was . . . mixing emulsions and photographing on wet plates. I did it for a year before I discovered that Eastman had already invented film and this wasn’t necessary.”
In honor of Charles and his love for photography, "The Gifted Eye" (now in Athens, at "El Greco Gallery - Vitra Showroom", 212 Kifisias Ave. 152 31 Halandri) featured 100 images that showed a detailed and intimate view of how he saw the world around him. The exhibition was open to the public from May 6 through May 21, 2016.
Charles had a life-long passion for photography that started at a very young age. In one of his 1970 Norton Lectures at Harvard University, Charles said that, just after his father’s death in 1918, he found a box of his dad’s old photography equipment: “Soon I was . . . mixing emulsions and photographing on wet plates. I did it for a year before I discovered that Eastman had already invented film and this wasn’t necessary.”
In honor of Charles and his love for photography, "The Gifted Eye" (now in Athens, at "El Greco Gallery - Vitra Showroom", 212 Kifisias Ave. 152 31 Halandri) featured 100 images that showed a detailed and intimate view of how he saw the world around him. The exhibition was open to the public from May 6 through May 21, 2016.
Courtesy eamesoffice.com
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