Brooklyn Museum unveils new Decorative Arts Galleries
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Monday, October 14, 2024


Brooklyn Museum unveils new Decorative Arts Galleries
Norman Bel Geddes, designer (American, 1893–1958). Revere Copper and Brass Company, manufacturer, Rome, New York (founded 1928). “Skyscraper" Cocktail set and serving tray, designed 1934, manufactured 1935. Chrome-plated metal, 12 3/4 × 3 5/16 × 3 5/16 in. (32.4 × 8.4 × 8.4 cm). Gift of Paul F. Walter, 83.108.5a–c, .6, .14. Photo: Brooklyn Museum.



BROOKLYN, NY.- The Brooklyn Museum draws from its rich holdings of decorative objects and unveils newly-renovated Decorative Arts galleries to present Design: 1880 to Now. This is the wing’s first renovation to take place since its galleries opened in 1971, and the installation similarly reimagines the collection and looks beyond traditional Eurocentric narratives with a display of works from the 19th century to the present day.

Design: 1880 to Now is organized by guest curator Aric Chen, independent curator and Curatorial Director of Design Miami, with Shea Spiller, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of the Americas and Europe. Additional curatorial contributions are provided by Catherine Futter, Senior Curator, and Elizabeth St. George, Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts, Brooklyn Museum. The renovation is led by Kenneth Kurtz, Museum Architect. The installation honors the late Dr. Barry R. Harwood, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Brooklyn Museum from 1988 to 2018.

“It was a privilege to work with the Museum—and before his passing, Barry Harwood—on this reinstallation, which aims to further draw out the many strengths of the collection, while expanding its narratives in ways the Museum will no doubt continue to build on,” says Chen. “It was important to respect how the collection was formed—there’s an element here of presenting a history of the history of design—while adding new perspectives and laying groundwork for exciting and more inclusive future directions.”

“We are very excited to unveil the redesign of our Decorative Arts galleries, which has been a three-year project in the making,” says Anne Pasternak. “To be able to honor Dr. Harwood in this way is very fitting and makes this moment doubly special. We have an incredible collection that I can’t wait to reintroduce to our visitors.”

Exhibition sections and highlights
The works on view offer competing visions of modernity as they highlight pressing themes from the era including tensions between craft and industry, innovations in production, and issues of cultural appropriation. Featured objects illuminate the complex trajectory of design history and look beyond traditional Eurocentric narratives of the past to include important issues of global exchange. Design: 1880 to Now pays particular attention to the influence of Chinese and Japanese culture on European and American decorative arts in the 19th and 20th centuries, European exploitation of labor, and problematic representations of East Asian and African cultures, which persist today.




Organized into sixteen sections, the works on view in Design: 1880 to Now exemplify a range of the styles and design movements that were popularized during this period. Focusing on new perspectives within these movements, the exhibition considers the Arts and Crafts movement from Britain to the United States; French Art Deco’s “Moderne Luxury”; the Machine Age, with a particular focus on female designers; and the influence of modern materials such as tubular steel in “From Bicycles to the Bauhaus” or molded plywood in “Democratizing Design in the Mid-twentieth Century.” While reimagining the collection, the exhibition also examines key figures in design from the mid-19th century onward, with a focus on international exchange through designers such as Gerrit Rietveld, Pierre Legrain, and Frederick Kiesler. The section “Louis Comfort Tiffany: Favrile Glass and Stained-Glass Lamps” pays particular attention to the labor history of these famous objects, which were designed and fabricated in a mostly female-operated studio. “After Modern” challenges the canon with an emphasis on designers who typified playful postmodern and contemporary expression such as Ettore Sottsass, Isabelle Moore, Tejo Remy, and Jeroen Verhoeven.

The installation also brings several newly-acquired contemporary works into cross-period conversations. In “Seeing America through the Century Vase,” Roberto Lugo’s 2019 Brooklyn Century Vase, which portrays a complex and diverse America seen through the lens of Brooklyn by paying tribute to the borough’s African American legend, is paired with the iconic 1876 Century Vase by Karl H. L. Mueller. Sections such as “Asia and the Decorative Arts” and “Cultural Appropriation and the Aesthetic Movement” challenge Asian representation across periods. “Japanese Modern” features two new acquisitions—Ginza Cabinet by Masanori Umeda, a robot cabinet that offers a playful example of postmodern furniture design, and is one of sixteen important gifts from the collection of George Kravis II to the Museum; and Shiro Kuramata’s Feather Stool, a poetic piece with dyed Mallard duck feathers seemingly floating in its transparent acrylic base—alongside works by Japanese modernists such as Sori Yanagi and Ubunji Kikodoro.

Renovation
The renovation opens up the gallery spaces, makes the artworks more visible, improves accessibility, and encourages better visitor flow in the 3,000 square foot space. A wall that limited visibility and entry from the Sackler Center has been removed, previously installed heavy wooden ramps have been lightened with transparent glass railings, floor-to-ceiling glass barriers were removed, and the openings to display spaces have been widened. Visitors will now be able to step into the Weil-Worgelt Study (ca. 1928-1930), where the small bar (hidden in the corner in defiance of Prohibition) is visible for the first time since the room’s installation in 1971. Additionally, the gallery walls have been freshened up with new coats of paint and accents of electric green along the corridor. The entire exhibition space, formerly known as the 20th-century Corridor, has been brightened with new lighting.

The Collection
The Brooklyn Museum’s outstanding collection of more than 34,000 mostly American and European decorative art objects comprises a wide range of furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, and textiles from the 17th century onwards. The earliest pieces of decorative art to enter the collection were silver spoons that came to the Museum in 1902, followed the next year by a number of pieces of European porcelain. With the arrival of Luke Vincent Lockwood, a noted collector and scholar, in 1914, the focus of the collections shifted from Europe to America. During the 1930s, the Museum began actively collecting modern design, focusing on design's relationship to industry, and organizing numerous landmark exhibitions on the subject.

Design: 1880 to Now is organized by Aric Chen, Curatorial Director, Design Miami, with Shea Spiller, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of the Americas and Europe, Brooklyn Museum. Additional curatorial contributions provided by Catherine Futter, Senior Curator, and Elizabeth St. George, Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts, Brooklyn Museum.

This installation honors the late Dr. Barry R. Harwood, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Brooklyn Museum from 1988 to 2018.










Today's News

October 8, 2020

Laisun Keane opens a solo exhibition of works by transdisciplinary artist Nicki Green

Artists have final victory in a case of destroyed graffiti

The Snite Museum of Art announces important acquisitions to its Mesoamerican collection

Seen Jurassic Park? T-Rex skeleton brings $31.8 million at Christie's

Replacement objects in "Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women" at the North Carolina Museum of Art

Brooklyn Museum unveils new Decorative Arts Galleries

Blood, passion and captivity: Gentileschi's life is in her paintings

Freeman's auction for the collection of Dr. Henry & Mrs. Fannie Levine achieves just under $1 million

Georgia museum makes major American folk art acquisition

Hindman breaks record for top lot sold at auction as results soar beyond pre-sale estimates

Bonhams promotes Jacqueline Towers-Perkins to Vice President, Director of Contemporary Art in New York

Boxed Machine Man sets new world auction record at $160,000

Sotheby's Hong Kong Jewellery Autumn sales total US$55 million

Orange County Museum of Art celebrates major building milestone "Topping Out"

Yinka Shonibare CBE announced for Government Art Collection commission

Renowned author and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger dies at 88

Philbrook Museum of Art opens groundbreaking exhibition of Native women artists

Johnny Nash, who sang 'I Can See Clearly Now', dies at 80

Steve McQueen opens London Film Festival with racially-charged drama

Thomas Dane Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Alexandre da Cunha

Collection of Beethoven bronzes by Antoine Bourdelle come to auction for first time

Yemen's mini-libraries: 'a candle in the dark'

Dallas Museum of Art names Paintings Conservation Center to honor conservator Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane

NGV announces more than 100 artists and designers for NGV Triennial 2020

How does a Wedding Singer Singapore help to uplift your wedding live band?

Top 5 things to do in Nepal

Art in the Hospitality Industry

Major benefits of escalators and their uses by La Grazia Escalators and Moving walks Company

Forthcoming Artistic Biennales Unmasking the Global Dilemmas




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful