Exposition: Pierre Paulin’s Chairs at Centre Pompidou

Between 1959 and 1975, Pierre Paulin created several iconic designs for Artifort, including the famous Ribbon chair, the Mushroom and the Tongue. These timeless designs, which were created in the Artifort workshops, are for the most part still in production today. They are distributed around the world and continue to be a source of fascination because they are so modern.

Centre Pompidou in Paris is paying tribute to Pierre Paulin’s work with a comprehensive retrospective devoted to the designer’s work. The museum has decided to add a Pierre Paulin lounge to the exhibition galleries giving visitors the opportunity to sit down in some of Artifort’s most comfortable sofas and chairs.

Pierre Paulin at Centre Pompidou

Guide to Computing by Docubyte and Ink

This colourful series of ten historic computers, created in close collaboration between INK and Docubyte, documents the beginning of our computing history. Featuring such famous machines as the IBM 1401 and Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE, Guide to Computing showcases a minimalist approach to design that precedes even Apple’s contemporary motifs.

What’s more, the combination of photography and retouching techniques has resulted in something wholly unique: the ageing historical objects as photographed by Docubyte have been ‘digitally restored’ and returned to their original form. As a number of these computers predate modern colour photography, Guide to Computing therefore showcases them in a never before seen context.

Guide to Computing, by Docubyte

The Bauhaus #itsalldesign by Vitra Design Museum

With the major exhibition »The Bauhaus #itsalldesign« (26.09.2015 – 28.02.2016), the Vitra Design Museum presents, a comprehensive overview of design at the Bauhaus for the first time. The exhibition encompasses a multiplicity of rare, in some cases never-before-seen exhibits from the fields of design, architecture, art, film and photography. At the same time, it confronts the design of the Bauhaus with current debates and tendencies in design and with the works of contemporary designers, artists and architects. In this way, “The Bauhaus #itsalldesign” reveals the surprising present-day relevance of a legendary cultural institution.

The Bauhaus #itsalldesign, by Vitra Design Museum

Exhibition: Hans J. Wegner – Just One Good Chair

Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) was one of the most prolific designers the world has ever seen. His furniture paved the way for the international breakthrough of Danish Design in the years after World War II. In 1949 he created the Round Chair, which the Americans dubbed “The Chair”: the ultimate chair design. Over his long career he created some 500 chairs. Wegner’s work always stems from the manual craft, and he personally created many of the prototypes in his workshop. His life was a constant quest to explore the logic and potentials of wood. In 2014, Designmuseum Danmark celebrates the 100th anniversary of Hans J. Wegner’s birth with the exhibition “Hans J. Wegner – just one good chair”.

Hans J. Wegner – Just One Good Chair, April 3 – December 7, 2014, Designmuseum Danmark, København K, Danmark

Exhibition: Charlotte Perriand at Design Miami

Charlotte Perriand is regarded as one of the most influential designers of the early modern movement, acknowledging the increasingly machine-driven culture of the 1920s and ’30s and introducing the profound change in aesthetic values to interiors. As a true pioneer in the application of materials like steel, aluminium and glass to furniture, the french architect and designer established an expansive breadth of work that, to this day, remains the archetype of an evolutionary shift in the industry. When she was just 24-years-old, she commenced a decade-long collaboration with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, during which period the trio conceived and developed a series of tubular steel chairs, existing now as icons of an era. The work of Perriand will be a significant presence at Design Miami/ Art Basel Miami 2013 with presentations at the Raleigh Hotel, the Louis Vuitton Boutique and the Cassina showroom.

Exhibition: Charlotte Perriand at Design Miami, Presented by Galerie Laffanour
Photography © Marie Clérin / Laffanour / Galerie Downtown – Paris, via: designboom

Exhibition: Jaime Hayon: Funtastico

The Groninger Museum presents the first large-scale solo exhibition of the work of Jaime Hayon (Madrid, 1974). Hayon is one of the most acclaimed designers of his generation. His work consists of autonomous and applied projects, across various disciplines such as ceramics, wood, glass, textiles, product, furniture and interior design. This exhibition is a reflection of the past ten years, a period of intense creativity and growth, in which Hayon has increasingly developed his autonomous work.

Hayon was educated as an industrial designer in Madrid and Paris, and subsequently joined Fabrica, the communications research centre of the Italian clothing label Benetton, in 1997. Within a relatively short time he rose from being a simple student to head of department. In 2000, he started up his own company and made his debut in the art design world with the ceramic work Mediterranean Digital Baroque. The Groninger Museum has been following Jaime Hayon for quite some time. In 2009, the Museum purchased two large installations (Mediterranean Digital Baroque and Mon Cirque) and in 2010 he designed the Museum’s new information centre. With commissions from all over the world and a host of renowned clients, Hayon is regarded as one of the most influential young designers of the present day. The exhibition includes the installations Mediterranean Digital Baroque and Mon Cirque as well as the now iconic Green Chicken and commissioned works for clients such as Baccarat and Lladro. American Chateau, the collaborative project he made with his partner artist, Nienke Klunder, is also featured in the exhibition.

A remarkable element of the exhibition is The Tournament: a unique work that consists of a life-size chess set made of turned wood and hand-painted ceramics, which the Groninger Museum managed to purchase recently. Hayon created this work in 2009, having been commissioned by the Design Festival London to do so; the work was inspired by the Battle of Trafalgar. This is the Dutch première of the artwork. The intention is to organize chess games at specified times. Jaime Hayon’s work issues from an irresistible urge to create his own world. It occupies a central position between autonomous art and design, where amusing, fantastic and narrative elements are combined with a keen eye for detail and finishing. His signature is characterized by a stylized input in which diverse styles blend together. Making use of all these other elements, Hayon translates craftsmanship and traditional techniques into emotionally influential objects and interiors that invite the viewer to be a part of them.

Jaime Hayon: Funtastico, October 13, 2013 – March 30, 2014, at Groninger Museum, Netherlands, Photography © klunderbie, Jaime Hayon

Carl Hansen & Son: The Maharam Shell Chair Project

For the 50th anniversary of Hans J. Wegner’s Shell Chair, manufacturer Carl Hansen & Son has teamed up with textile brand Maharam to release 20 special versions of Wegner’s iconic design.

The Shell Chair has long been viewed as one of Hans J. Wegner’s strongest designs. It first saw the light of day in 1963, but it took 35 years before it enjoyed its popular breakthrough and received numerous design awards. Through its unique silhouette and superior comfort, Wegner demonstrated that he had truly achieved what he had set out to do: create the ideal shell chair.

Carl Hansen & Son: The Maharam Shell Chair Project

Icon: Drawings of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair

Gerald Griffith at work in his studio:

Wright has offered at auction several original drawings of the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe.

When Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair was introduced in 1929 it was critically acclaimed but the cost and difficulty of chrome plating the frames limited production. By the early 1950s technology had caught up to Mies van der Rohe’s progressive furniture designs and both Knoll Associates and Gerald Griffith were producing his forms. Chairs produced by Knoll and Gerald Griffith can be distinguished by looking at the intersection of the base; works made by Gerald Griffith feature a crisp hard-edged intersection while versions by Knoll have a reinforced curved intersection.

The Mies van der Rohe office found Gerald Griffith in 1949. The challenge of creating the Barcelona chair in stainless steel – something engineers said could not be done – appealed to Griffith’s tenacious personality. After much experimentation and exploration, Griffith completed the task and he produced Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona and Tugendhat designs in stainless steel for a number of years.

Provenance: The Office of Mies van der Rohe, Chicago | Edward A. Duckett, Bowling Green | David Bryant, Bowling Green In celebration of Mies van der Rohe’s 125th birthday, Wright’s senior specialist Michael Jefferson presented the history of the Barcelona chair to The Mies van der Rohe Society.

Blueprint and Elevation of the Barcelona chair, 1950, Auction at Wright

Exhibition: Like Pastoe: 100 years of design innovation

Kunsthal Rotterdam will be presenting a comprehensive exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dutch furniture brand Pastoe. Since it was founded in 1913, Pastoe has grown to become an internationally recognised designer label. The brand stands for simplicity, timelessness, quality and craftsmanship. Over the past years, Pastoe has acquired an excellent circle of designers including Maarten Van Severen, Shigeru Uchida and Scholten & Baijings.

The exhibition Like Pastoe illustrates the rich history of the furniture brand and provides an overview of the unique collaboration between Pastoe and various architects, artists and designers. The exhibition has been organised around the following themes: ARCHIVES, ENVIRONMENTS and VISIONS. In the ARCHIVES theme, Krijn de Koning presents the history of Pastoe using exceptional designs, advertising material, sketches, photographs and trade fair presentations. Within the ENVIRONMENTS section, Anne Holtrop projects Pastoe’s vision on the architectonic space. The exhibition’s installations represent an environment in which living, working, learning and creating are defined in a new way. VISIONS highlights the search for new perspectives on product development and includes work by various designers such as Naoto Fukasawa, Claudio Silvestrin and Scheltens & Abbenes.

Like Pastoe: 100 years of design innovation, February 23 – June 2, 2013, at Kunsthal Rotterdam

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Icon: 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for DePadova

In 1960 Dieter Rams conceived of a shelving system “…that could be expanded, rearranged and moved when necessary. The system initially went by the name RZ 60, and in 1970 was renamed the 606 Universal Shelving System, which continues to be a success today. Its popularity derives from the fact that lt offers restrained simplicity while the individual components offer great flexibility for the ever-changing lives of the owner. Over the years the wall-mounted shelving evolved to allow it to be compressed between the floor and ceiling (from 1970). A series of drawers, cabinets and integrated tables permits it to accommodate almost all requirements.” (Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams)

606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams, Available in annodized aluminium or white powder coated aluminium, for DePadova