PETWORTH.- Newlands House opened ‘Ron Arad 69’ (19th September to 7th January 2021): a survey of significant works by the pioneering artist, architect and industrial designer. Curated by the gallery’s Artistic Director, Simon de Pury, this is the gallery’s debut exhibition devoted to design. ‘Ron Arad 69’ features early works from the 1980s and 1990s alongside pieces from the past two decades, including unseen releases for 2020, presented against the historic backdrop of the gallery’s Georgian townhouse setting.

Timed with the artist’s 69th birthday this year, the exhibition features approximately 50 studio pieces, several of which have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London; and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

New works within the exhibition include Now What, 2020, an iteration of the original ‘Big Easy’ chair which makes its first public appearance following a virtual launch earlier this year. Otherwise known as the ‘Brexit chair’, Now What commemorates the day the UK left the EU, with every single newspaper published on 31st January 2020 printed across the chair’s surface.

Recognisable pieces from the 2000s, such as Gomli, 2008 (red gelcoat), Gomli, 2009 (polished stainless steel), are being exhibited outdoors, in the grounds of Newlands House. Inside, curved works in stainless steel and polished aluminium occupy the gallery’s 12 rooms, including Ping Pong, 2008; Blo-Void 1; BOOP Table, 1999; Big Easy Volume 2 for 2, 1989; and Spaghetti Kobros Light, while the iconic Rover Chairs, 1981 immerses the viewer further in Arad’s world and creative mind.




Simon de Pury, Artistic Director, Newlands House, comments: RON ARAD 69 will include top works of the artist from different stages of his career, from the eighties all the way to 2020. Ron Arad is one of the all-time greats in the world of design and architecture, similar to the way Helmut Newton – the subject of our previous exhibition at Newlands House – was in photography. I greatly look forward to seeing the contrast between the 19th century architecture of the gallery and the resolutely 21st century feel of Arad’s dazzling and bold works.

Newlands House is a new 7,500 square-foot gallery in the historic market town of Petworth, West Sussex. Housed within a remarkable Georgian building, the gallery is dedicated to the great artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, across art, photography and design.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1951, educated at the Jerusalem Academy of Art and later at the Architectural Association in London, Ron Arad co-founded with Caroline Thorman the design and production studio One Off in 1981 and later, in 1989, Ron Arad Associates architecture and design practice. In 2008 Ron Arad Architects was established alongside Ron Arad Associates.

From 1994 to 1999 he established the Ron Arad Studio, design and production unit in Como, Italy. He was Professor of Design Product at the Royal College of Art in London up until 2009. Ron Arad was awarded the 2011 London Design Week Medal for design excellence and was became a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2013.

Ron Arad’s constant experimentation with the possibilities of materials such as steel, aluminium or polyamide and his radical re-conception of the form and structure of furniture has put him at the forefront of contemporary design and architecture.
Alongside his limited-edition studio work, Arad designs for many leading international companies including Kartell, Vitra, Moroso, Fiam, Driade, Alessi, Cappellini, Cassina, WMF and Magis among many others.

Ron Arad has designed a number of Public Art pieces, most recently the Vortext in Seoul, Korea, and the Kesher Sculpture at Tel Aviv University.