Major Exhibition Exploring a Quarter-Century of American Design To Open June 19 at Museum of Arts & Design
USDesign 1975-2000 will feature over 250 of the most influential works by leading American designers, such as Gehry, Graves, Holl, Lin, Mayne, and Venturi
NEW YORK— USDesign 1975-2000, a major exhibition offering a critical and comprehensive analysis of American design during the last quarter of the twentieth century, will open at the Museum of Arts & Design (formerly American Craft Museum) on June 19, 2003. Featuring more than 250 designs and objects, USDesign 1975-2000 explores some of the most significant developments in the fields of graphic design, architecture and decorative and industrial design in the United States in this time period.
The exhibition presents the work of three generations of internationally recognized and emerging designers whose style matured after 1975, including Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Steven Holl, Maya Lin, Thom Mayne, Ross Menuez, Katherine McCoy, Karim Rashid, Deborah Sussman, and Robert Venturi. USDesign 1975-2000 also introduces important theoretical and cultural issues that have shaped the design arts in this quarter century and addresses the impact of the Information Age on American design. The exhibition will be on view at the Museum of Arts & Design through November 2, 2003, and at the adjacent Deutsche Bank Lobby Gallery, 31 West 53rd Street.
USDesign 1975-2000 is organized by the Denver Art Museum with support from the Henry Luce Foundation. Circulated by Exhibitions International, New York.
USDesign 1975-2000. Presented by Target. Supported by JPMorgan Chase.
USDesign 1975-2000 underscores the Museum of Art and Design’s integrated approach to craft, art, and design, as expressed by the Museum’s recent name change. The institution’s new name illustrates its mission as a contemporary museum dedicated to celebrating materials and the processes of transforming them into expressive objects —transcending the boundaries that currently separate craft, art, and design.
“USDesign 1975-2000 resonates with the interdisciplinary and inclusive nature of our collections and programming, because it looks at the creative processes that span all design arts, including
architecture, industrial, and graphic design,” says Holly Hotchner, director of the Museum. “It provides an important platform for discussion about the different art forms and designers as part of one creative continuum—an exploration which we will encourage through a wide range of educational programs planned to coincide with the show.”
David Revere McFadden, Chief Curator of the Museum of Arts & Design, comments, "This exhibition lucidly traces the complex story of American design at the end of the twentieth century and those designers and architects who gave form to the postmodern and post-industrial ethos. At the same time, the exhibition reiterates the creative potential of interdisciplinary design in which art, craft, design and architecture challenge and nourish each other."
"Target Stores believes in partnering with leading cultural institutions to foster creativity, promote learning and build stronger communities," says Laysha Ward, Vice President of Community Relations, Target Corporation. "Based on our commitment to innovative design and our long standing relationship with Michael Graves, this exhibition is a perfect match for us."
USDesign 1975-2000 also kicks off “MAD About Design ‘03,” a series of education programs created by the Museum of Arts & Design in 2003 to explore the work of leading artists and designers from increasingly diverse artistic backgrounds who experiment with different materials and approaches to making objects. The “MAD About Design ‘03” series is presented by JPMorgan Chase.
“This exhibition comes at a key moment in the development of this institution as we reaffirm our dedication to craftsmanship as a skill in creating objects in a wide range of media and creative disciplines,” adds Jerome A. Chazen, Chairman of the Museum’s Capital Campaign. “’A Year of Design’ reinforces our role as a leader in addressing major developments in craft and design throughout the 20th century and today, and as a major educational resource on the impact of design in all areas of our lives.”
USDesign 1975-2000 builds on the Museum of Art and Design’s rich history of exhibitions that illustrate the cross-pollination between contemporary craft, art, architecture, and graphic design, such as Louis Comfort Tiffany (1958), Architectural Glass (1968), Architectural Ceramics/Eight Concepts (1985), Architectural Art: Affirming the Design Relationship (1988), Frank Lloyd Wright: Preserving an Architectural Heritage (1991) and Bauhaus Workshops 1919-1933 (1994).
USDesign 1975-2000 is organized by the Denver Art Museum, where it premiered in early 2002. After its presentation at the Museum of Arts & Design, its only Northeast venue, the exhibition will travel nationally for two years. Additional venues include the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, TN, and the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
USDesign 1975-2000 will occupy the entire museum, as well as the adjacent Deutsche Bank Lobby Gallery. Objects on view in the Museum include furniture, tableware, televisions, computers, lamps, textiles, vases and wetsuits, exemplifying the goal of the American designer to deliver a combination of beauty and practicality to consumers. Highlights include Frank Gehry’s cardboard Bubbles Chaise Lounge (1979-82) and Fish Lamp (1984); Thom Mayne’s Nee Side Chair (1988); Lyn Godley and Lloyd Schwan’s Otto Cabinet (1990-91); Lisa Krohn’s Twiggy Lamp (1993); Harry Allen’s Stratta Bowls (1997); and Karim Rashid’s glass, steel-chrome and neoprene Space Chaise and his glass and chrome-plated metal Soft Lighting (both1999).
On view at Deutsche Bank Lobby Gallery, developments in architecture and architectural theory are illustrated through drawings, photographs, and models of some of the epoch’s most significant buildings by architects such as Peter Eisenmann, Frank Gehry, Steven Holl, Daniel Libeskind, Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, Bart Prince, James Wines, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and Robert Venturi The work of R/Greenberg Associates in the exhibition is an example of designers utilizing technology as a medium. The firm created the title sequence for the movie Seven. Tibor Kalman and April Greiman are also featured artists who work in words and live action for motion graphics.
“This project…in no way pretends to be a survey of everything that has happened in American design since the 1970s,” writes R. Craig Miller, Curator of Architecture, Design and Graphics at the Denver Art Museum and curator of the exhibition, in the accompanying catalogue. “We have tempted to characterize a number of the definitive ideas that have shaped this period, the major American designers of this epoch, and some of their most influential works. We have also attempted, where appropriate, to note how American design relates to international
developments during this quarter century and, with the fresh perspective of a new century, how it relates to larger trends that have evolved through the entire twentieth century.”
Miller brought together a team of leading design scholars and critics to research and organize the exhibition in their respective areas of expertise. They include David G. DeLong in architecture; Philip Meggs in graphics; and Miller himself, who oversaw decorative and industrial design.
ABOUT THE CATALOGUE
USDesign 1975-2000 is accompanied by a catalogue of the same title published by Prestel in association with the Denver Art Museum. The 256 page-publication features 280 color illustrations, an introduction by R. Craig Miller, and essays by Rosemarie Haag Bletter, David G. de Long, Thomas Hine, Philip B. Meggs, and R. Craig Miller.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum of Arts & Design is planning a series of innovative public programming, including a three-part lecture series exploring museum architecture in New York City, additional lectures and panel discussions on topics in architecture and design, concerts, workshops, and a two-day design conference.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS & DESIGN
For nearly half a century, the Museum of Arts & Design—formerly the American Craft Museum—has served as the country’s premier institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary objects created in craft media, such as clay, glass, wood, metal, and fiber. The Museum celebrates materials and processes that are today embraced by practitioners in the fields of craft, art and design, as well as architecture, fashion, interior design, technology, performing arts, and art and design-driven industries. The institution’s new name
reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of the Museum’s permanent collection and exhibition programming as it explores objects that are created at the crossroads of craft, art, and design.
The Museum of Arts & Design has organized many exhibitions featuring objects created in a wide range of media and design disciplines. In 2001, the Museum presented the exhibition Defining Craft I: Collecting for the New Millennium, the first in a series of traveling exhibitions that explore the changing definitions and meanings of craft in the 21st century. The exhibition examined the influence and potential of new technologies such as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), already used by such innovators as metalworker Stanley Lechtzin and textile artist Hideo Yamakuchi. In addition to one-of-a-kind objects, the exhibition also included craft multiples—works made in a series production—such as furniture designed by architect Frank Gehry or dishes designed by Roy Lichtenstein. The Museum will continue to collect and present one-of-a-kind prototypes made for serial production in the future.
Other exhibitions organized by the Museum in the past to explore new developments in the field and illustrate the synergy between contemporary craft, art, and design, include Judy Chicago: Resolutions: A Stitch in Time; Tommy Simpson: Garden of the Heart; Sandy Skoglund: Breathing Glass; Peter Chang: A Visionary; and Objects for Use: Handmade by Design.