Category: Defies Description

Art, Defies Description, Furnishings, Furniture July 6, 2018July 7, 2018

Abraham Palatnik, Kinetic Pioneer

“My role as an artist is to discipline the chaos regarding information…” Abraham Palatnik

Brazilian kinetic pioneer, Abraham Palatnik (b. 1928) originally studied mechanics and physics with an emphasis on internal combustion engines at Tel Aviv’s Escola Técnica Montefiori, perhaps with the original intentions of working at his family’s furniture and porcelain businesses. Palatnik, having always been a talented artist, also honed his skills in painting and sketching under the tutelage of local Israeli artists, including the painter, Aharon Avni.

By 1948, having developed great skills in fine art painting, Palatnik returned to his homeland of Brazil, not to begin a career at his family business, but to begin his journey as an artist. After his return to Brazil, Palatnik accepted an invitation to visit Dr. Nise de Silveira’s groundbreaking occupational therapy classroom for schizophrenic patients at the Pedro II Psychiatric Hospital. Being amazed at the abilities of the doctor’s artistically untrained patients, Palatnik soon understood that artistic abilities were sometimes intrinsic capabilities and completely subconscious.

Upon this revelation, Palatnik abandoned his fine arts focus and began experimentation with light and movement. Over the next two years and using his training in mechanics, Palatnik created Aparelhos Cinecromáticos, a series of paintings that used moving light as paint. Aparelhos Cinecromáticos made its debut at the 1st São Paulo Biennial in 1951; however, that which took two years to create was not well-received. Relegated to a side room, it was excluded from the catalog due to the inability of the judges to categorize his work. However, a visiting international jury “considered it to be an important manifestation of modern art.” His experimentation went on to garner critical success and was called “the true art of the future.”

Palatnik went on to create more moving sculptures with his Objetos Cinéticos series, which comprised metal rods, wire and brightly colored wooden discs that were moved about by motors and electromagnets.

In 1954, along with his brother, Aminadav, they opened the Arte Viva, a modern furniture factory that remained open into the next decade. But perhaps Palatnik’s most well-known works are his series of lucite animals created by the duo’s art object company, Silon. Palatnik, now 90, continues to create and exhibit throughout the world.

PALATNIK COLLAGE — Row 1 (top to bottom): From the “Aparelho cinecromático” series, approx. 1951; Table and chairs for Arte Viva, approx. 1950; Lucite owls for Silon, approx.. 1965-1970;
Row 2 (top to bottom): “P4” from the “Objeto Cinetico” series, 1966 (Photo: Vicente de Mello/Divulgação); credenza for Arte Viva, approx. 1950

Defies Description, Industrial Design July 6, 2018July 7, 2018

The Original Orange-handled Scissors™ by Fiskars of Finland

“Sensations of the ordinary” – Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison

In 1967, Olof Bäckström designed the iconic orange-handled scissors for Fiskars of Finland. Called “sensations of the ordinary” by industrial designers Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison, the “cutting edge” plastic ergonomic handles enabled the user to cut with ease and precision. Far better than the heavy steel scissors that were typically available. Using plastic also reduced the cost of manufacture thereby making scissors more accessible to all.

Originally meant to be produced in black, green and red, the first batch of scissors were produced in orange, as a plant employee chose to use some leftover orange plastic so as not to waste the material. When the Fiskars employees voted for favorite color, orange won the majority vote. So, it is a coincidence that created the iconic orange handles. Fiskars trademarked “Fiskars orange” in Finland in 2003. And before a pair of Fiskars leaves the factory, professional “listeners” ensure the blades make that distinctive “snip” before they are packaged and shipped around the world. Fiskars scissors celebrated their 50th birthday in 2017. To date, the most widely-spread Finnish product has sold over 1 billion units.

Listen for the snip!

Architecture, Defies Description, Furniture July 5, 2018July 7, 2018

Lina Bo Bardi, Architect of the People

“Her building is one of a kind… heroically sized in every way: the biggest span, the most prominent location. It’s a brave building, amazing and gutsy.… I don’t like overly designed, overly gestured work. In MASP, the building has a sweeping sense of movement, but also a neutral feel. The art is the star, not the building.” Mark English on the Museu de Arte de São Paulo

Achillina “Lina” Bo-Bardi (b. 1914) was an Italian-born, Brazilian modernist architect and designer.

After earning an architecture degree in 1939, she moved to Milan and opened Studio Bo e Pagani with fellow architect, Carlo Pagani. World War II made obtaining work as an architect difficult, so Bo took additional work as a journalist and illustrator for newspapers and magazines, including Gio Ponti’s critically successful magazine, Domus. While at Domus, Bo and Pagani, along with a photographer, toured war-torn Italy to document the destruction for Domus. This, along with the loss of her office in Milan due to aerial bombings, greatly influenced Bo’s political involvement in the anti-fascist, Italian Communist Party and, ultimately, her architectural vision. This made her life in Milan during the war anything but ordinary. Bo-Bardi once said that it was “a miracle” she escaped unharmed, as her activities with the resistance and a noticeable affinity for “new art,” caught the attention of the Gestapo.

At the end of the war, Bo married Brazilian art critic, Pietro Maria Bardi, and immigrated to Brazil where she and Giancarlo Palanti opened Studio de Arte e Arquitetura Palma, a modern furniture design firm that emphasized affordability and traditional Brazilian craftsmanship. And it is In Brazil where she would eventually establish her rationalist style in which she “put people in the centre of the project.”

In 1951, she designed her first project in São Paulo, her home, “Casa de Vidro”, a glass house that hovered on the edge of the rainforest. But it was in 1958 that Bo Bardi designed what many consider her most significant design, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. Considered by many to be a leading example of Brazilian modernist architecture, the main body of the museum appears to be suspended from brilliant red columns and beams creating an open space underneath so as not to obscure the vista beyond the museum. The main exhibition room, unlike most museums, had floor to ceiling windows that flooded the room with natural light. The museum also implemented Bo Bardi’s unique method of displaying the art by which the art pieces were fixed to glass panels allowing visitors to move amongst the art instead of observing from a distance.

As a preservationist, which was not a popular notion at the time, Bo Bardi, was acutely aware of the relationship people have with the buildings they inhabit. About the historic district of Bahia, she said ‘[It] is not about the preservation of important architectures, but about preserving the city’s popular soul.’ So, after the coup in 1964, and once again finding it difficult to obtain commissions for new projects, she refocused her work on “adaptive reuse;” turning buildings and factories in need of rehabilitation into cultural and leisure centers. This work would continue until her death in 1992.

While never gaining the recognition of her Brazilian contemporary, Oscar Niemeyer, nor being a native-born Brazilian, Bo Bardi’s love for her adopted country and the people that lived there, inspired her to create masterpieces that were accessible to all, making her a beloved master of Brazilian Modernism.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, sitting, table and indoor — Row 1: “Casa de Vidro” (Photo: Markus Lanz); “Tripé Chair” (approx. 1948-51); “Bowl Chair” (1951); tea trolley (1948);
Row 2: “Abril Chair” (designed for the Sao Paolo museum, 1947); interior Sao Paulo museum; exterior Sao Paulo museum; Lina Bo-Bardi

Defies Description, Furnishings July 4, 2018July 7, 2018

Jack Lenor Larsen, Textile Artist

“I was too much of an individual to fit into their mold.” – Jack Lenor Larsen

Jack Lenor Larsen’s lifelong devotion to fabrics started early. He left the University of Washington’s School of Architecture after one year and moved to Los Angeles to focus on weaving. Eventually, with a Masters of Fine Art form the Cranbrook Academy of Art, he moved to New York and opened his studio, Jack Lenor Larsen, Incorporated. While he found great success quickly, it wasn’t without disappointment; in 1951, Florence Knoll turned down his designs as too “individualistic.” By 1953, however, Knoll had commissioned Larsen for other projects.

Larsen, known as one of the most prolific textile craftsmen of the mid and late twentieth century, has designed for many, including Marilyn Monroe, David Rockefeller, Frank Lloyd Wright and Marcel Breuer. And perhaps his most famous collaboration was with Braniff International Airways.

Since the 1950s, the award-winning textile designer has designed thousands of fabric patterns and has been instrumental in innovations in the textile industry.

Jack Lenor Larsen is 91 and resides in New York City.

Defies Description, Furnishings, Furniture, Industrial Design July 4, 2018July 9, 2018

Dieter Rams, Master of Functionalism

“Less, but better.” — Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams (b. 1932) is a functionalist German industrial designer known for his work with Braun and Vitsoe.

In 1947, having recognized Dieter’s talent his father enrolled his 15-year-old son in Wiesbaden School of Art to study architecture and interior design. After two years, Rams left the school to take a three-year carpentry apprenticeship after which he returned to the school and completed his degree with honors in 1953.

During his absence, the school took a decided turn toward modernism. It was then that Rams was introduced to German modernism and the Ulm School of Design. After graduating, he worked with Otto Apel’s architecture firm and was further exposed to modernism through the firm’s association with modernist colleagues in America. These brushes with modernism would prove fateful two years later when Rams accepted an in-house architect and interior design position with Braun to design new office space for the company.

Rams went to work planning a new space that included a wall-mounted shelving system. With this design, his collaboration with Vitsoe was born. With the approval of Edwin Braun, Rams took the idea to Vitsoe. One year later, the Vitsoe 606 Universal Shelving System was launched.

In the early 1960s, Rams used his architecture background and began work on a planned community in Kronberg for Braun employees. “Roter Hang” is a community of grouped and terraced bungalows that line a sloped hillside. There can be found his only fully-realized architectural design;his L-shaped dopplebungalow. Although Braun delayed the project, it was eventually completed by Rudolf Kramer in 1974. The community, as well as Dieter Rams’s personal home, which is a testament to his personal credo of “less for more,” due to its modest footprint and sparse decoration, have been granted protected status and designated a cultural monument.

Rams is known for his “10 Principles of Good Design,” one of which is “environmentally friendly.” In a 1976 speech, Rams said, “there is an increasing and irreversible shortage of natural resources.” He has long believed we must “move away from the throwaway habit” and “[that] it will be less important to have many things and more important to exercise care about where and how we live.” Dieter Rams products fully embody his 10th principle – simplicity and purity.

Dieter Rams retired from Braun in 1995, but continues to work for Vitsoe. He and his wife still live in the Roter Hang bungalow in Kronberg.

“Question everything generally thought to be obvious.”
― Dieter Rams

MODERN MINUTE