EXHIBITIONS: London Design Museum does some California dreaming ...

 Spectacles by Snap, Inc.

The innovative and exuberant spirit of California and its design sensibility will
be celebrated at the stylish new London Design Museum, beginning on 
May 24 and running through October 15, 2017. While California’s mid-century 
modernism has been well-documented, California: Designing Freedom 
is the first international show to examine its strong global appeal,
whose essence is exploring the tools of personal liberatioh.

From skateboards to iPhones,
snazzy sunglasses to political posters and LSD blotting paper,

Waymo’s self driving car, the first consumer GPS device

and a replica of the Captain America chopper from Easy Rider,

the exhibition "explores how 'designed in California' expresses a 

distinctive approach to design and life." 
.

Patent drawing for the geodesic dome courtesy of The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller/Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio - See more at: http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/california#sthash.Z4xKFCS9.dpuf

Patent drawing for the geodesic dome courtesy of The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller/Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio - See more at: http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/california#sthash.Z4xKFCS9.dpuf

Patent drawing for the geodesic dome courtesy of The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller/Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio - See more at: http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/california#sthash.Z4xKFCS9.dpuf

Patent drawing for geodesic dome, R. Buckminster Fuller,
America inventor, architect, and dreamer 

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."

 Black Panther poster, 1968

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 California, Designing Freedom comprises approximately 200 objects, organized into 
five thematic sections. Collectively, these works assert that design in California is distinguished by an emphasis on individual freedom. The Brits seem to remain fascinated by America's spirit of independence and individuality, despite having moved toward a less rule-bound society themselves.

The five sections of the exhibition are organized as follows: 

GO WHERE YOU WANT: Tools of movement and escape
Many of the innovations associated with California, from LA’s freeways to Google Maps, revolve around freedom of movement. This section of the exhibition focuses on mobility, from navigation to portability and exploration. 







 Left:
Waymo's sef-driving car 






 

SAY WHAT YOU WANT:
Tools of self-expression and rebellion

California has a unique history of fostering freedom of expression, from from the Berkeley Free Speech movement to new graphic languages and social media. This section explores the state’s culture of communication through posters, magazines and online platforms. 

SEE WHAT YOU WANT: Tools of perception and fantasy
California is of course known as the land of make-believe-- the home of Disney, Hollywood and videogaming. This section explores how California has pioneered new ways of looking at the world, from acid trips to virtual reality. 

Above: LSD blotting paper featuring the lads from Liverpool

MAKE WHAT YOU WANT: 
Tools of production and self-reliance
Perhaps no place has done more to democratize access to industrial technology than California. This section features tools that have made it easier and more accessible 
to handcraft simple, utilitarian objects. The Whole Earth Catalog, 
the counterculture’s "bible of self-sufficiency",  
stood at the forefront of the "maker culture."

 Earthrise, by William Anders, an astronaut on Apollo 8 (1968), shot the iconic photo
that was to become the cover of the second and third editions of the catalog.
 
JOIN WHO YOU WANT: 
Tools of collaboration and community
Since the founding of California, the freedom to create your own community has been considered essential to success and survival. From hippie communes to Facebook, this section examines tools that enable communities both on the ground and online. Exhibits include a geodesic dome, Sussman Prejza’s designs for the 1984 LA Olympics and documentation of the early Burning Man festivals. 

Opening ceremonies, 1984 Olympics
Los Angeles 
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Below: Notes on the Design Museum

London's striking new Design Museum, designed by John Pawson,
 opened in late November 2016.

The 10,000 square metre venue, which used to occupy a former 1940s banana warehouse in Shad Thames, was relocated last year to the new building on 
Kensington High Street in west London. The new site is a quick 
walk to the Royal College of Art, the V&A museum, 
the Science Museum and the Serpentine Galleries. 
You could easily spend several days just wandering the neighborhood.

The move is expected to bring in an extra 400,000 visitors each year. 


~oOo~

EXHIBITION: Pierre Chareau's Chic Modern Architecture and Design at NYC's elegant Jewish Museum

For the next two months, New York City's elegant Jewish Museum will highlight 
the design work and architecture of noted French artist and arts patron Pierre Chareau. 
Though not quite a household name like his friends Piet Mondrian, Amedeo Modigliani, Jacques Lipchitz, and Max Ernst, Chareau was an internationally recognized artist

who specialized in high-style designs for the film industry during the period 
between World Wars I and II.

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Below: Chareau set designs, c. 1938

Chareau was a man of numerous talents and interests. He collaborated with modernist architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, creating furniture for three French films by director Marcel L’Herbier; opened two shops in Paris in the mid-1920s, one that sold cushions and hand-throws, and the other that sold furniture and lighting; designed stage sets for Edmond Fleg’s production of Merchant of Paris at the Comédie Française in 1929; and hosted salons, together with his wife, Dollie, for the celebrated artists, writers, 

and musicians of his time.

 Above and below:

Chareau is noted for building the first house in France made of 
steel and glass, the famed Maison de Verre (1928-1932).

“No house in France better reflects the magical promise of 20th-century architecture than the Maison de Verre,” then architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote in an August 2007 New York Times article, after having spent a few days at this famed Left Bank abode.

Rendering of the garden of the Maison de Verre, Paris
Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The Jewish Museum exhibition also addresses Chareau’s life and work in the New York area, created after he left Paris during the German occupation of the city. This includes 
the house he designed for painter Robert Motherwell in 1947 in 
East Hampton, Long Island.

Above:
section of the Robert Motherwell house

Bad reviews for this project led to a decline in commissions for the designer, so he 
earned money by giving cooking lessons to wealthy Americans and by 
selling art from his personal collection. Critics!

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Below:

 Views from the exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, 
running through March 26, 2017 at The Jewish Museum, NY. 
Photos: Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com

 

 For more information about this exhibition, link
here. 

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 And don't forget to check out the new Russ and Daughters deli
at the museum, a long-awaited and instantly popular addition 
to the uptown Manhattan eating scene.

The Anne: wild Western nova smoked salmon, smoked yellowfin tuna, 

sable, smoked brook trout, and wild Alaskan salmon roe. Photo: Paul Wagtouicz


~oOo~

EXHIBITIONS: All the world's in love with design

From Tokyo to London, Amsterdam to New York,

museum curators have been preparing singular exhibitions for 2017,

shows that will display what they call "The Anatomy of Design".

Think about it ...
✫*¨★.¸¸.✶★¨`*.

In our everyday lives we are surrounded by countless products. These mass-produced, ordinary objects blend in so seamlessly with our lives that we rarely take a thoughtful look at them. But in fact, a great deal of thought goes into them at every stage of their production, with ingenious solutions applied to nearly every element: the materials used to construct them, their flavor, packaging, and total ambiance."Design Anatomy" aims to examine those design elements in detail.


Below: Have a Kinako no Yama, a mushroom-shaped chocolate biscuit.

 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, a Toyko consortium devoted to the study of design,
recently held an exhibition "Design Anatomy: A method for seeing the world through 
familiar objects" that ran through through Jan. 22, 2017. 
 Next year's exhibition will be held February 17, 2017 (Fri) - June 4, 2017 (Sun).
The theme will be "Athlete".

The 2016-2017 show involved looking into the history, market, packaging, quality control, title and graphic-design development, and even the ingredients of items on 
display, offering intensely detailed insights into foods we often take for 
granted. Included in the lineup are Kinako no Yama, those mushroom-shaped 
chocolate biscuits, and Meiji’s milk chocolate bars. (Mio Yamada)

"Measuring G"

Pinkol in Tokyo

(snack food) 

   

 "Fear And Love" - London Design Museum

"These newly commissioned works explore a spectrum of issues that define our time, including: networked sexuality, sentient robots, slow fashion and settled nomads."

I don't get this description at all, but I love the color combos! 

~oOo~ 

  

ODD BITS: Pantone announces 2017 Color of the Year

This coming year, optimism and the desire to live in greater harmony with our environment will supersede chic and drama in Pantone's Color of the Year. And the 2017 winner is ...

GREENERY (color #15-0343) 

GREENERY opened to mixed reviews in the Twitterverse.
"Pea soup for 2017?" read one tweet, while another asked "Have we gone back to the 1970's?" But other commenters were more positive, saying that the tinge of yellow
in the color makes it hopeful and festive, and that the chosen color was
not a variant of blue or red, which they had 
had quite enough of during election season.  




“We know what kind of world we are living in: one that is very stressful and very tense,” Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone Color Institute’s executive director, said in an interview. 
“This is the color of our connection to nature. It speaks to what we call the ‘re’ words: regenerate, refresh, revitalize, renew. Every spring, we enter a new cycle, and new shoots come from the ground. It is something life affirming to look forward to.”

GREENERY lends itself to use in room interiors (the indoor garden look),
 textiles and fashion (it goes with nearly everything), car design (the new 
Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster comes in a particularly
eye-catching shade of leaf green), and furniture. 

Left:
Haute House Tiffany Damask Chair.






Below:
 
Dior’s new makeup colors include a lip shade called “clover", which should
match up nicely with that green-colored juice (kale smoothies?) that everyone
seems to be drinking these days.

 "Green Monster" smoothie
It's a health drink, it's a lotion, it's a floor polish


“There’s a Japanese concept called ‘forest bathing,’ which says that when you are feeling stressed, one of the best things to do is go walk in the forest,” Ms. Eiseman said. “But if you can’t do that, what can you do? Bring green into your environment. Put in on your body, or in your house or near your desk. That symbolic message is very important.”

Or, in the immortal words  of Kermit the Frog ...

... green is the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like. And green can be big like the ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree.

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder? 

Why wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.

~oOo~

ODD BITS: The passing of high-spirited beehive creator Margaret Vinci Heldt

From Audrey Hepburn to Ronnie Spector, Brigitte Bardot to Elizabeth Taylor,

Amy Winehouse to Adele, many celebrities and creative women owe 

their signature looks to celebrated Chicago hairdresser Margaret Vinci Heldt, 

who passed away recently at the age of 98.

Heldt designed the unforgettable "beehive" hairdo in 1959 when

trade magazine Modern Beauty Shop asked her to come up

with something unique to feature in its February 1960 issue.

 "Ratted, sprayed and shellacked, able to jump half a foot in height in a single salon 

appointment, her conical creation meant that Chicago, for a time, 

stole away the title John Waters gave to Baltimore: 

Hairdo Capitol of the World.”

                                                                                                ... Chicago Sun-Times 6/13/16 

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 Ronnie Spector (above left), lead singer of  superstar girl group The Ronettes, 

was perhaps the most celebrated beehive-wearer of her era.

 Elvis was quite a fan of the style, so his wife Priscilla -- already known 

for her big hair -- adopted it for a while.

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 Great ladies of the silver screen loved the beehive:

 

                          Audrey Hepburn

 Brigitte Bardot

                                                                                                                      Elizabeth Taylor

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   Beloved late singer Amy Winehouse brought the beehive 

   back into style in the 21st century.

And Adele keeps it going, in a more gentle manner ...

°     °     °     °     °     °     °     °     ° 
And of course the ladies of Mad Men wore the "do" to maximum effect ...

  Feisty office manager/ eventual partner

   Joan Holloway 

                                        Betty Draper went all out trying to get a little more attention from  

                                                                       her wandering husband Don in this get-up.   

~ oOo ~

 But the award for the tallest beehive of them all goes to ...

 Marge Simpson!

°     °     °     °     °     °     °     °     °

Margaret Vinci Heldt remained high-spirited and effervescent through her entire life.

She marveled at the fact that she had created an iconic hairdo, and become so

widely recognized in her profession. The Chicago History Museum proudly displays

a model of the beehive hairdo (complete with appropriate hairpin) in its collection. 

She loved performing, which she often did at cosmetology conventions. 

In the photo below, she's wearing a “Hello, Dolly!” costume 

lent to her by her client, Carol Channing.

 “I have love in my heart for hairdressers,” Ms. Vinci Heldt told the Chicago Sun-Times 
in 2002. “I was privileged to give something to our profession that became a classic.”
But, she added, “I don’t know how we could have done it without hairspray.”

Link here for a more complete bio of

Ms. Vinci Heldt, from the Chicago Sun Times


originally published 6/14/16