September Issue 1999
Renowned Collection of Modern Furniture From the Vitra Design Museum in Germany Arrives at the Columbia Museum of Art
100 Masterpieces form the Vitra Design Museum will be
on view at the Columbia Museum of Art, in Columbia, SC, from
Sept. 18 to Dec. 12. This exhibition of chairs, case furniture,
lounges, stools and drawings is drawn entirely from the collection
of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany and is one
of the most extensive and renowned collections of modern furniture
from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Every important epoch and
style is represented from early examples of mass production through
the most recent design innovations. Examples form the world's
foremost designers and architects of the past century such as
Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank O. Gehry, Eero Saarinen, Charles and
Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Le Corbusier as well as many others
are included.
Vitra, a Swiss firm founded in 1934, is the most respected manufacturer
of office furniture in Europe. The Vitra Design Museum was founded
in 1989, and its collection of furniture ranges in date from 1820
to the present. The museum's main focus is on designs that embody
the philosophy of Modernism - the abstract, utopian, functional
and geometrically pure style that prevailed in the 1920s. With
the demise of Modernism, from the 1970s onward the furniture styles
became pluralistic, just like painting and sculpture of the same
period. These works, dating from 1820s to the 1990s, are indicative
of the individually creative talents that designers had. These
pieces are more than just furniture; they are art objects.
100 Masterpieces form the Vitra Design Museum has been
organized by the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany,
and circulated in North America by Exhibitions International,
NY. Support for the Columbia Museum of Art is provided by the
citizens and corporations of the Midlands, the City of Columbia,
Richland County, The South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Cultural
Council of Richland and Lexington Counties. The museum's exhibition
program is supported in part, by PHP.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings
or call the museum at 803/799-2810. .
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC
29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
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Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
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