I just found out about a few wonderful fashion-related exhibitions that I am going to include on this month's calender. As you will see, they have already opened but I did not want them to go unmentioned. I am also looking forward to attending two art fairs this month, both are new to me. One is NYC20, a new design fair focusing on 20th century decorative arts and design and the other is SOFA, in its 15th year no less! I have skipped this venerable show in years past but am really looking forward to it this time around. Some of my favorite galleries, like Nexxt20 and Gallery Loupe, will be exhibiting.
See
"Chairs without Legs", March 21 – June 10, 2012, Bauhaus Archive, Berlin.
This exhibition is a collaboration between the Die Neue Sammlung (The International Design
Museum Munich) and the Bauhaus Archive. In defiance of traditional construction methods, the cantilever chair came to represent the essence of modern design in the 1920s. With their designs for the first cantilever chairs made of tubular steel, Mart Stam, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe transferred a new architectural concept of space with an emphasis on lightness and transparency to the realm of furniture. Since the 1950s and ’60s, highly innovative materials and technologies have come into use, such as plastics and corrugated cardboard. Artistic, social and political influences are reflected in provocative, unconventional seating objects. Pioneering figures during this period were Verner Panton, Frank Gehry and protagonists of new German design such as Stiletto. This selection of furniture from the holdings of ‘Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich’ provides a multifaceted overview of the design and technological development of modern seating. For more info: http://www.bauhaus.de/index+M52087573ab0.html
"Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective" through July 8, 2012, Denver Art Museum. This is the only venue for this exhibition which chronicles the 40-year reign of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Over 200 haute couture garments, as well as historical photos, drawings and films that highlight the designer’s extensive career are on view.
Los Angeles does it again with two great exhibitions, this time focusing on fashion and photography, gracing its museums' walls. Herb Ritts was a Los Angeles-based photographer who established an international reputation for his distinctive photographs of fashion models, nudes, and pop icons. "Herb Ritts: L.A. Style" is at The Getty Center in Los Angeles until August 26, 2012. And just a few miles away, "The Total Look", at LAMOCA until May 20, 2012, celebrates the remarkable collaboration between the great fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, his model and muse Peggy Moffitt, and Moffitt's late husband, the photographer William Claxton, who created the distinctive images of Moffitt activating Gernreich's designs.
"Finer Things: Jewelry & Accessories from the 1880s-1930s", April 1- October 7, 2012, Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, Akron, OH on April 1, 2012. The focus of this exhibition is to display the type of jewelry that F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling might have worn during the time that they lived at Stan Hywet. This refers to both jewelry that is appropriate in style to the time period and also of the quality that people of their social status and wealth might have owned. The jewelry periods which will be represented in the exhibition are: Late Victorian, Edwardian, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. Stan Hywet is the former home of F.A. Seiberling, the co-founder of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The 65-room manor house is the sixth largest home in the United States...larger than the White House. The curator of the exhibition is jewelry historian Elyse Zorn Karlin, co-director of The Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts. For more info: www. stanhywet.org
Shop
NYC20 Art and Design Fair, April 12-15, the Tent at Lincoln Center, Damrosch Park, NYC.
Sponsered by 1stdibs.com, this new fair will include 33 American and European dealers specializing in 20th century decorative art and design. For more info: http://www.dolphinfairs.com/nyc20
SOFA NEW YORK 2012, April 20-23, 2012 at the Park Avenue Armory, NYC. When the 15th edition of the Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair (SOFA NEW YORK) opens on Friday, April 20 at the Park Avenue Armory, it will do what it has always had done best—spur visitors to wrestle with the topic: What is art? As always, attendees will be drawn to a thrilling collection of masterworks representing the gamut of contemporary art and design from around the world. Upon entering the exhibition hall, fairgoers will be instantly transported into a celestial mise-en-scene created by architect David Ling. For more info: http://www.sofaexpo.com/
