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Midcentury Masters Examines the Work and Lives of Harry Bertoia, Lina Bo Bardi, Charles and Ray Eames, and Buckminster Fuller

Presented in Conjunction with Atmosphere for Enjoyment: Harry Bertoia's Environment for Sound and Bent, Cast & Forged: The Jewelry of Harry Bertoia

June 16, 23 and 30, 2016, 7 pm
$10 general / $5 members and students
http://madmuseum.org/midcenturymasters

New York, NY (June 13, 2016)

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) presents a new film series, Midcentury Masters, starting June 16 in the Museum's Theater. Screened in conjunction with two exhibitions on midcentury artist and designer Harry Bertoia—Atmosphere for Enjoyment: Harry Bertoia's Environment for Sound and Bent, Cast & Forged: The Jewelry of Harry Bertoia—the films in the series look at the lives and work of Bertoia, Lina Bo Bardi, Charles and Ray Eames, and Buckminster Fuller, placing Bertoia in the context of his contemporaries.

From Fuller's utopic geodesic visions and the Eames' prefab case study homes to Bo Bardi's urban revitalization projects, this generation of artists was at the forefront of a revolutionary movement experimenting with materials and form through a practice of austerity in service of the collective good.

"We wanted to contextualize Bertoia's interdisciplinary practice among a broader group of historical peers working through similar concerns in the mid-twentieth century," said Katerina Llanes, the Museum's Public Programs Manager. "Hopefully, the films will provide audiences with new ways of understanding Bertoia's work and capture the zeitgeist of that particular generation."

MAD's two exhibitions on Bertoia will be on view through September 25. Atmosphere for Enjoyment: Harry Bertoia's Environment for Sound focuses on his sounding sculptures, works created out of metal rods that set off tones when struck together. Bent, Cast & Forged: The Jewelry of Harry Bertoia introduces the lesser-known early jewelry works that, in many ways, are the predecessors of his internationally acclaimed sculpture and furniture designs.

Midcentury Masters is curated by Katerina Llanes, Manager of Public Programs, and Carson Parish, Audiovisual Coordinator.

Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter + Harry Bertoia's Sculpture
Thursday, June 16, 2016 – 7:00 pm
$10 general / $5 members and students
The Theater at MAD

Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey, 2011, USA
85 min, Digital Projection
Narrated by James Franco, this vibrant documentary traces the careers of Ray Eames and her husband, Charles, highlighting the duo's eccentric output. Primarily known as furniture makers, the Eameses also worked in film, photography, architectural design, and multimedia experimentation. The Architect and the Painter highlights their immeasurable contributions to American arts, culture, and technology. They paved the road to public acceptance of modernism and rethought the ways in which we interact with our surroundings—and in some ways created an aesthetic template for the digital era.

Harry Bertoia's Sculpture
Clifford West, 1965, USA
25 min, Digital Projection
With a mesmerizing soundtrack by Harry Bertoia, Clifford West's film creates a setting of motion and progression rare among other educational films of the 1960s and '70s. An abstract study, it mirrors the abstraction of Bertoia's work itself. An opening shot of a lunar landscape reveals itself to be one of his sculptures, setting the stage for something grand in scope, yet miniature in size.

The World of Buckminster Fuller
Thursday, June 23, 2016 – 7:00 pm
$10 general / $5 members and students
The Theater at MAD

Baylis Glascock and Robert Snyder, 1974, USA
85 min, Digital Projection
Effervescent, eclectic, and unpredictable, Buckminster Fuller is one of the titans of twentieth-century design. Actively making work for over half a century, he became known more as a universal problem-solver than a designer. Seeking to "do more with less," Fuller used this precept as a guiding principle for innovating and creating objects and ideas that improved the day-to-day quality of human life. Largely told in his own words, this rare documentary captures Fuller at the peak of his creative influence.

The New World of Lina Bo Bardi + Precise Poetry
Thursday, June 30, 2016 – 7:00 pm
$10 general / $5 members and students
The Theater at MAD

The New World of Lina Bo Bardi
Ouida Angelica Biddle, Nicolau Vergueiro, and Joao Rosa, 2013, USA
4 min, Digital Projection
The New World of Lina Bo Bardi is a hand-drawn, CGI-made short by architect and filmmaker Ouida Angelica Biddle, directed in collaboration with Nicolau Vergueiro and Joao Rosa. This four-minute video can be seen as a form of fan fiction for Bo Bardi, one of the great architects of the twentieth century and a significant voice in and against Brazilian modernism. The imagery of the video is re-created entirely from her sketches and buildings, and text by Bo Bardi is read to an original soundtrack arranged by DJ Total Freedom that repurposes parts of the architect's 1951 essay on Bela Criança.

Precise Poetry
Belinda Rukschcio, 2014, Austria and Germany
55 min, Digital Projection
Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi created stunning works of architectural poetry, and in this expansive set of interviews shot on the eve of her 100th birthday, her colleagues and friends chronicle her life. Bo Bardi worked during a time in which sociopolitical constraints as well as unforeseen personal events created immediacy in her work, removing it from the limitations of time. A cinematic odyssey through some of her most important Brazilian architectural projects, this film also reflects on the enduring nature of an artist's soul after he or she has passed.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields and presents the work of artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill. Since the Museum's founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum's curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving twenty-first-century innovation, and fosters a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design.