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Alexander Calder
By the end of his nearly century-spanning career, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) had worked in virtually every artistic medium, but metal was undoubtedly his muse. Raised by artist parents, Calder was...
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Gino Sarfatti
Gino Sarfatti was in awe of light, but obsessed with the light bulb. Through the designer’s long line of innovations, from the slender aluminum floor lamps of 1956 to the bowl-shaped wall sconces of...
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Ben Jackel
Activist art often conjures associations of hyper-political, in-your-face images and guerrilla performances that affront and assault the senses in order to draw attention to a particular cause or...
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Alexandre Noll
Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) famously said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” This same principle — the sumptuousness of the raw...
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John James Audubon
Damien Hirst may have made millions on sheep in formaldehyde, but he was hardly the first to exploit animals for art. In fact, he’s part of a storied lineage. Eadweard Muybridge, the nineteenth century...
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Arne Jacobsen
Arne Jacobsen was a designer of everything. A trained architect, he designed the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. It was the city’s first skyscraper, a vision in sea-green glass and steel. He also...
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Dieter Rams
Not a knob more than what you need. A TV designed by Dieter Rams. Image via Life as an Architect. “Weniger, aber besser” — less, but better. Industrial designer Dieter Rams, born in Germany in 1932...
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Eileen Gray
Visible from the sky. Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici's counter-modernist love palace. “The biggest secret of E.1027 is that it offers spaces for secrets, having layers of interiors within its...
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Wharton Esherick
Inside Wharton Esherick's home in Valley Forge, PA. Photo courtesy of American Craft Council. Wharton Esherick’s (1887-1970) famous 1931 Fischer Corner desk is no ordinary workstation. It has the...
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Signs of Our Times
Sign painter Otto Pfeiffer at work, circa 1975. Looking out the Kaufmann Mercantile studios and across the street toward a former knitting factory, it’s easy to become transfixed by the ornate sign...
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Greta Magnusson Grossman
Table lamps by Grossman from 1940s-50s. (Photo by Sherry Griffin, courtesy R 20th Century) “[Modern design] is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions,” Greta Magnusson Grossman...
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Clock of the Long Now
The year 02,000. Only 1/5 of the way to the year 10,000. In this ever-advancing modern era, where the mantra of the zeitgeist is “better, faster, cheaper,” Danny Hillis — inventor of the supercomputer...
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The Bones of J.R. Jones
Jonathon Linaberry, a.k.a. The Bones of J.R. Jones, launches his new LP, Dark Was The Yearling We asked Jonathon Linaberry, the dipped-in-honey voice behind the one-man blues band The Bones of J.R....
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Milo Baughman
The iconic Wave chaise lounge by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin. (Image courtesy 1stdibs.com) Milo Ray Baughman Jr. (1923-2003) showed a talent for design early on. Growing up, he had a keen interest...
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Navajo Textiles
A weaving by Lucie Marianito, based on traditional chief blankets. (Image courtesy navajorug.com) For over 300 years, Navajo weaving has been valued for its importance as a vital native art. The Navajo...
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Ruth Asawa
The artist with one of her wire crochet sculptures. (Image sourced from angelaadams.com/blog) Famed for her crocheted wire sculptures that bend and balloon, sway and swell, American artist Ruth Asawa...
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The Auböck Design Legacy
Carl Auböck with a selection of sculptures. (Image sourced from werkstaette-carlauboeck.at) The story of Carl Auböck does not concern one man, but four generations of husbands, wives, sons and...
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Clock of the Long Now
The year 02,000. Only 1/5 of the way to the year 10,000. In this ever-advancing modern era, where the mantra of the zeitgeist is “better, faster, cheaper,” Danny Hillis — inventor of the supercomputer...
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Enzo Mari
Enzo Mari in his studio. (Image via artribune.com) Design is Dead. Form is Everything. These are two of Enzo Mari’s most famous quotes. The man is known to have said both dozens of times in one sitting...
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Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll working on a design. (Image via knoll-int.com) If you know Sterling Cooper Draper Price, you know Florence Knoll. At a time when corporate design was heavy drawers-to-the-floor desks and...
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