International Design Museum Munich devotes exhibition to design icons
May 7, 2013 by All Art News
Filed under Design & Architecture
MUNICH.- An exhibition in the Audi Forum in Neckarsulm has now been devoted to design icons from one of the world’s leading design museums. Until the end of June Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich – is displaying a trenchant selection of objects from its permanent collection. The exhibition represents a new style of presentation for the Museum, which moving away from its usual context is targeting a wide audience with an interest in design.
The Museum selected highlights from around 150 years of design history with this specific venue and purpose in mind: Works by famous designers from Germany and the USA , France , Italy , Japan , and the Netherlands , who combine innovative technologies and visionary forms in a pioneering way.
The time frame extends from the 19th century to the changes triggered by digitalization at the onset of the 21st century, focussing on the 1920s, the new beginning following World War II and the swinging sixties in between. The early connections between design and industrial production, Bauhaus, machine aesthetics, organic design, “synthèse des arts”, innovative living concepts, Pop Art and Postmodernism are just some of the areas addressed.
Jeroen Verhoeven, Cinderella Table, 2005, Manufacturer: Id Productions for Demakersvan, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Owner: Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich, Photo: Die Neue Sammlung (A. Laurenzo).
The story can just as much be told from a cultural, political, and stylistic perspective as it can with reference to materials and production technologies: from the Thonet brothers’ Bentwood chair, the first mass-produced steel-tube chair by Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames’ plastic chair shell, and Gaetano Pesce’s experiments with molded foam, to Jeroen Verhoeven’s Cinderella Table, whose design and production would have been impossible without a computer.
The works selected represent examples of superbly designed objects from their particular era. They may well have been extremely good value at the time they were made, becoming very expensive just a short time later. Originally produced in large numbers, only to become rarities. Or indeed unique design statements.
“These objects became icons because they caught on worldwide and have become part of our collective memory and of our lives, enriching them.” (Prof. Florian Hufnagl, Director of Neue Sammlung)
The “Design Icons” exhibition staged by Neue Sammlung marks the beginning of “Audi hosts Pinakothek der Moderne” collaboration. The company is supporting the SCHAUSTELLE, the temporary interactive space for the four Pinakothek der Moderne museums in Munich . With its design icons in tow, Neue Sammlung is visiting the Audi Forum in Neckarsulm as a “satellite” of the SCHAUSTELLE.
