Fall 2002-April 2004
Modern Design Galleries, Lila Acheson Wallace Wing
A rotating selection of important designs in all media, dating from the late 19th to the early 21st century will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from fall 2002 through April 2004. Significant Objects: Selections from the Modern Design and Architecture Collection will feature furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, textiles and jewelry, all drawn from the Metropolitan's holdings. The exhibition will highlight the diversity and depth of the Metropolitan's modern design collection, demonstrating the aesthetic value of the works on view within the Museum's collection and within the larger context of art history.
In the installation, related objects will be arranged primarily in small groupings to represent the Museum's encyclopedic holdings from the major movements of modern design history. For example, a selection of 1920s German modernist works reflecting the influence of the Bauhaus will include Marcel Breuer's "B-35" armchair, a silver tea infuser by Marianne Brandt, and an abstract upholstery fabric by Sigismund von Weech. Selections of works by particular designers—such as Christopher Dresser and Charles Rennie Mackintosh—will demonstrate the Metropolitan's commitment to representing all aspects of important designers' careers.
Juxtapositions of aesthetically related works—such as a rare Czech cubist earthenware coffeepot dating from 1912 by Pavel Janàk and a post-modern ceramic teapot by the California artist Peter Shire, made in 1981—will show the continuity of interest in decorative themes, forms, and materials. An especially strong pairing of two important French art deco works will be a cabinet by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann (acquired directly from the designer in 1926) and a jeweled brooch of 1923 by Georges Fouquet (a recent gift to the collection). A luxurious masterpiece of Austrian turn-of-the-century design, a silver and jeweled tea service by Josef Hoffmann (founder of the avant-garde design workshop Wiener Werkstätte) will be contrasted with a contemporaneous, flamboyant, French art nouveau porcelain tea service—all whiplash curves and sinuous decoration—by Maurice Dufrène.
Many of the objects that will be on view, including an extraordinary French modernist table lamp by Jacques Le Chevallier from 1928 and a strikingly sculptural 1999 glass vase by Laura de Santillana, were acquired recently and have never been exhibited at the Metropolitan. Works by other notable designers—including Carlo Scarpa, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Ettore Sottsass, Wendell Castle, Sori Yanagi, Pierre Legrain, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Poul Kjaerholm—will also be on view.
Significant Objects is organized by J. Stewart Johnson, Consultant for Design and Architecture, with the assistance of Jane Adlin and Jared Goss, Assistant Curators in the Department of Modern Art.
A full range of educational programs will accompany the exhibition, including gallery talks, lectures, and poetry readings.
Significant Objects will be featured on the Museum's Web site at www.metmuseum.org.
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June 3, 2002
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