Search Results

(b Tel Aviv, 1951).

Israeli designer, active in Britain. In 1981 Arad founded, with Caroline Thorman, One Off Ltd, a design studio, workshops and showroom in Covent Garden, London. In 1989, again with Caroline Thorman, he founded Ron Arad Associates, an architecture and design practice in Chalk Farm. In 1994 he established the Ron Arad Studio in Como (Italy). His most famous design is the Rover Chair, which recycled used Rover car seats. He has long had an interest in the use of steel, and the Bookwork bookshelves (...

(b Paris, after 1945).

French performance and installation artist, painter, bookmaker, furniture and interior furnishings designer. Chaimowicz moved to England as a child, studying at Ealing College of Art (1963–5), Camberwell College of Art (1965–8) and the Slade School of Art (1968–70). Whilst completing his MA at the Slade, Chaimowicz decided to abandon painting, and started to make performance work, such as Celebration? Real Life (1972; performed at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Gallery House, London). For the duration of each show, Chaimowicz lived within the domestic space that he had created, serving coffee to visitors to the gallery. His work during the 1970s and early 1980s concentrated on performances in imaginary, idealised domestic spaces, with fragmented narratives and symbolic actions. Partial Eclipse (1980–82) consisted of Chaimowicz walking in a figure of eight in front of and behind a screen on which slides of his apartment/studio were projected, whilst a female voice recounted fragments of meetings, situations and relationships (see ...

(b Karentaba, 1954).

Senegalese painter and furniture designer. He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure d’Education Artistique and the International School of Art and Research, Nice. He taught at the Ecole Nationale des Arts and in 1997 was president of the National Association of Fine Arts, Senegal, as well as a member of the Economic and Social Council of Senegal. In the 1980s his ‘dense and emotive’ works were figurative and dealt with general issues such as violence. His work of the mid-1990s was made with strips of cotton cloth, fashioned on canvases so as to create areas of three-dimensional relief, and colored with browns and ochres. He also created brightly coloured figurative acrylic pieces on paper. He exhibited in the first (1995) and second (1997) Johannesburg Biennale and at other international shows in Senegal, Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, Burkina-Faso, Argentina, the USA and elsewhere. His furniture designs include a table made from old machinery parts, gears, hoes and glass, which was included in Dak’Art ’98. In the late 1990s he was considered one of Senegal’s pre-eminent artists....

(b Toronto, Feb 28, 1929).

American architect, exhibition designer, furniture and jewlery designer, and teacher. He qualified at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1954 and attended the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, in 1956–7. After working in various architectural practices, from 1962 he practised independently in Venice, Los Angeles establishing the firm of Frank O. Gehry and Associates, Inc of which he remains the Design Principal. His early work focused on the potential of small-scale works to provide a succinct metaphorical statement, as with various exhibition designs for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and his designs for the Joseph Magnin Stores at Costa Mesa and San Jose (both 1968), CA. In his early works he was interested more in the manipulation of architectural form than in technical innovation, and he was concerned with the conceptual and spatial content of buildings rather than the tighter demands of the architectural brief. Seeking an ‘open-ended’ approach to architecture, he was influenced by the work of fine artists such as Constantin Brancusi and Robert Rauschenberg. But his works of the late 1970s proved that his approach could provide habitable if haphazard buildings, as in the Wagner House (...

(b Baghdad, Oct 31, 1950; d Miami, FL, Mar 31, 2016).

British architect, designer and teacher, of Iraqi birth. She studied at the Architectural Association, London, from 1972 to 1977 and then joined the Office for Metropolitan Architecture founded by Rem Koolhaas, one of her teachers; there she worked on the Dutch Parliament Building extension (1978), The Hague. In 1979 she opened her own practice in London, designing a flat in Eaton Place that won a gold medal from Architectural Design in 1982. She also began teaching at the Architectural Association (1980–87). During the 1980s she entered several architectural competitions, winning those for the Hong Kong Peak (1983, see fig.), the Kurfürstendamm (1986), Berlin, and for an art and media centre in Düsseldorf (1989). She also designed furniture and interiors (1985) for Bitar, London, and interiors (1990) for the Monsoon Restaurant, Sapporo, Japan. Her work seeks to develop the traditions of Modernism; it is inspired by Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism, but perhaps most profoundly by the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich: she believed that the possibilities inherent in the work of such figures as Malevich had only begun to be realized. Sometimes described as ‘Neo-Suprematist’ and as resembling spaceships, her designs are typified by fragmented convex geometrical forms that engage and define the space around them, incorporating a Futurist sense of dynamic movement....

French luxury goods and fashion house. Thierry Hermès (1801–78), a fine craftsman and artisan, opened a harness and saddle-making shop in Paris in 1837. It evolved into the House of Hermès, a world-renowned supplier of luxury leather goods, fashion apparel and accessories, fragrance, jewellery and gifts (see fig.).

Thierry Hermès’ dedication to quality, fine workmanship, and superior materials gained him a reputation as the most superb maker of harnesses in Paris. In 1879 the success of Thierry’s shop enabled his son, Emile-Charles (1835–1919), to expand the business and relocate to its present headquarters at 24, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. The house supplied riding equipment to the best stables throughout Europe, including those belonging to royalty, such as the Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, and Tsar Nicholas II.

Adolphe and Emile-Maurice (1871–1951), grandsons of Thierry, vigorously spearheaded the diversification of Hermès products when the introduction of motor vehicles began to threaten business. Hermès expanded their offering to include luggage, handbags and sporting equipment. Until then no fancy leatherwork had been done by saddle-makers and the Hermès saddle stitch style was an instant success. Furthermore, the fittings of their leather accessories inspired the vogue for harness motifs and hardware in sportswear....

(b Lahore, Jan 1, 1940).

British furniture-designer and teacher, also active in Australia. Ingham was educated as a designer at the Huddersfield School of Art (1957–9), Leeds College of Art (1959–61) and the Royal College of Art (RCA), London (1961–4). A Royal Scholar at the RCA, in his final year he won several scholarships that gave him the freedom to travel. He consequently spent a year as design assistant to Antti Nurmesneimi (b 1927) in Helsinki (1964–5). Ingham’s identity as a furniture-designer and educator was well established in England by the 1970s and early 1980s, through his own work, a partnership with his designer-maker brother, Robert (1971–5) and through industry associations. Before coming to Australia he had taught at the Hornsley College of Art (1966–8) and Middlesex Polytechnic (1968–72). Between 1977 and 1982 he was a Visiting Lecturer at Rycote School for Furniture Making, the London College of Furniture and the John Makepeace School for Furniture Making....

American furniture manufacturer and retailer. Knoll International was established in 1938 in New York City by Hans Knoll (1914–55). Knoll was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and his father, Walter Knoll, was a recognized furniture manufacturer who produced modern designs by architects such as Franz Schuster (1892–1968) and early Bauhaus architects. Unable to work with his father, Hans Knoll went to England in 1936 to partner with modern furniture retailer Plan Ltd. established years earlier by architect and designer Serge Chermayeff.

In 1938, Plan was liquidated and Hans Knoll departed for New York where he opened the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company. In 1941, he purchased a manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania and the first Knoll chair was produced. Designed by Danish émigré Jens Risom (b 1916), the chair was part of a 15-piece series known as the “600” line and consisted of a form-fitting wooden frame and robust webbing. Early Knoll catalogues included designs by Ralph Rapson (...

(b Düsseldorf, Feb 19, 1950).

German sculptor. He attended the Staatlichen Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (1975–82), where he studied under Klaus Rinke. From 1979 Mucha made assemblages and constructions from furniture and other objects, creating an oblique, highly personal oeuvre that alludes to industry and travel in contemporary Germany. During the 1980s he created installations, often using furniture found in situ — desks, chairs, lights etc. — that raised questions of ownership and display, and of the autonomy of the museum environment. In 1982 he made Wartesaal (see 1982 exh. cat.), a steel structure holding 242 signs bearing six-letter German station names that could be removed and displayed on a brightly-lit table. The theme of travel, especially of the railway, is central to Mucha’s work. With Wartesaal he constructed an endless imaginary journey that may refer to the spiritual journey of a people during reconstruction. Other major room installations during the 1980s include Das Figur-Grund Problem in der Arkitektur des Barok (für dich allein bleibt nür das grab...

[MoMA] (New York)

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was founded in 1929 by patrons Lillie P(lummer) Bliss, Cornelius J. Sullivan and Rockefeller family §(1) to establish an institution devoted to modern art. Over the next ten years the Museum moved three times and in 1939 settled in the Early Modern style building (1938–9) designed by Philip S. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone that it still occupies at 11 West 53 Street. Subsequent renovations and expansions occurred in the 1950s and 1960s by Philip Johnson, in 1984 by Cesar Pelli and in 2002–4 by Yoshirō Taniguchi (b 1937). MoMA QNS, the temporary headquarters during this project, was subsequently used to provide art storage. In 2000, MoMA and the contemporary art space, P.S.1, Long Island City, Queens, announced their affiliation. Recent projects are shown at P.S.1 in Queens in a renovated public school building.

According to founding director, Alfred H(amilton) Barr...

(b Castle Eden, nr Hartlepool).

English sculptor, installation artist, curator and writer. She studied at Sunderfield Polytechnic between 1980 and 1983 and Goldsmiths’ College, London, between 1984 and 1986. In the early 1990s she used furniture and domestic objects as sculptural materials, reworking them so that they became art objects, as with Shadow Box (1990; see 1997 exh. cat.). Here a padded leather seat, which seems to be a typical gallery bench, is echoed by an abstract wall relief, also in leather; closer inspection reveals that the latter is sewn into squares that could be the interior of the seat, inducing the sensation both of sitting on the installation and of looking at what is normally ignored or unseen in the gallery. For Gold Card (1992; see 1997 exh. cat.) Smith placed gold credit cards bearing the message ‘I wanna be your fantasy’ in various phone booths along Charing Cross Road in London, adjacent to cards advertising the services of prostitutes; the invitation to use the card to buy intimacy linked ‘acceptable’ consumer lust with the taboo sale of the fantasises on display next to them. Smith often created viewing situations that encourage a reassessment of the values represented by everyday objects and scenarios, transforming the ordinary into trophies or mementos that lay bare uncomfortable associations. In the sculpture ...

(b Paris, Jan 18, 1949).

French designer and architect. In the 1960s he attended the Ecole Nissim de Camondo in Paris. In the 1970s he designed the interiors of the night-clubs of La Main Bleue (1976) and Les Bains-Douche (1978) in Paris and in 1979 founded the company ‘Starck Product’. The first commission to bring him public attention was from President François Mitterand of France for refurbishing the private apartments in the Elysée Palace (1982), Paris. Starck also refurbished the Café Costes (1984), Paris, the Manin Restaurant (1988), Tokyo, the Royalton Hotel (1988), New York, and the Teatriz Restaurant (1990), Madrid. In these commissions he was responsible not only for the general layout but also for the design of such features as andirons, fire pokers and light fittings. His belief in integrated design is more fully realized in his architecture, most notably the La Flamme building (...