Gray-Adler-Nouvel (6-12 August)

Eileen Gray, Irish furniture designer & architect, birthday 9 August 1878
Jonathan Adler, American potter & designer, birthday 11 August 1966
Jean Nouvel, French architect, birthday 12 August 1945

This week we discuss three individuals whose tenacity for design was a hard-fought battle at times. 

The first is Eileen Gray.  As a woman in a male-dominated medium of architecture in the turn of the 20^th century it was a struggle to be recognized as the legitimate formidable force she was without the benefit of support networks or a powerful mentor.  To add to the up-hill battle for Gray was where she was working.  Paris at the time was alive with the Art Nouveau and her geometric forms were more in line with the International Style. 

However, it is to that style put in motion by the Bauhaus that Gray provided opulent luxury to the mostly cold industrially produced materials.  Some of these successes were the Bibedum Chair and the E-1027 table designed to indulge her sister’s love of eating breakfast in bed (who doesn’t).  Originally a lacquer artist she was lauded outside of Paris for the interior design for an apartment on Rue de Lota.  Unfortunately, as time wore on and the French critics were relentless she became increasingly reclusive.  Gray isolated herself at the house she designed for her and lover to share on the French Rivera.  

There they were constantly harassed by le Corbusier who would “vandalize” the house with murals he would paint uninvited and in the buff.  Nearly 30 years later there was a resurgence of interest in her work that included some of her pieces being brought back into production.  It is said that Joe Colombo’s Boby Trolley (see last week’s entry) was inspired by a double sided chest she designed for the house. 

Jonathan Adler’s exuberance for design was evident at an early age.  As a teenager he begged his parents for a potter’s wheel where spent most of his time.  Dejected by criticism from a college professor, he gets a “real job” in New York but after three years of misery and having being fired from every job he ever held Adler ventures again into his passion, much to the chagrin of his parents.  Fortunately, buyers for the department store Barney’s recognized the same whimsical optimism Adler professes in persona translated directly into his work and gave him his first large commission.  Since then his empire has expanded into all realms of home furnishings including a commission from Mattel for Barbie’s “real” Dream House in honor of her 50^th anniversary.  In addition to inspiring people to unabashedly embrace the smile within he is an advocate for artisans around the world extoling the belief “If your heirs won’t fight over it, we won’t make it.” 

To say that architecture was always a struggle for Jean Nouvel would be untrue.  However, like Jonathan Adler his parents weren’t convinced that a career in art would be a reliable occupation.  They originally urged him to become a teacher like themselves or to go into engineering.  The compromise was architecture and Nouvel has been teaching the world about site-based responsive design ever since. 

The ground-breaking introduction for Nouvel onto the world stage was his commission for the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.  On the south side of the building are thousands of mechanical lenses that contract and expand automatically by photoelectric cells for the regulation of light within the building.  The building is alive and breathing.  This not only alleviates the mechanical systems but it also is reminiscent of Arabic latticework which in of itself is a passive cooling system in an arid climate.  This is the perfect adaptation of one culture’s vernacular transformed into a foreign local.  A second success in Paris is the Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain which is a nearly invisible glass structure that hovers among the trees and between buildings; an unusual sight in the middle of the city.  More examples of Nouvel’s work are scattered around the globe and earned him a Pritzker Prize in 2008.         

Links:

Friends of E-1027 House, Cap Martin, France

E-1027 Table available for purchase at Design Within Reach

Eileen Gray pices at ARAM

Jonathan Adler's website

Interview with Jonathan Adler in Dwell magazine

Atleiers Jean Nouvel website

Jean Nouvel Design website

Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France

Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France

Colombo-Bartholdi-Gwathmey (30 July - 5 August)

Joe Colombo, Italian industrial designer, birthday 30 July 1930 & death 30 July 1971
Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor, birthday 2 August 1834
Charles Gwathmey, American architect, death 3 August 2009

Joe Colombo’s work can best be described as “space-y”; everything that lead to the ridiculousness of low-budget scenery of sci-fi productions from the 1960s and 70s.  However, Colombo was the original and as so often happens, the intended vision gets lost by the imitators.  After inheriting the family electronic business he expanded into a range of design that sought to challenge traditional aesthetics that no longer applied to the modern lifestyle.  He created micro-living environments in which each element was strategically placed for

efficiency and functioned like a living machine.  Many pieces were designed to be transformative and multi-dimensional such as his Boby Trolley and the Tube chair.  His own apartment was a testing lab for pieces such as the Cabriolet-Bed.  All this innovation came about in a few short years as Colombo had the inauspicious honor of passing away on his own 41^st birthday.  It is amazing to think of that brief period Joe Colombo’s influence could be so far-reaching even to this day. 

Although Frédéric Bartholdi is best known for his work “Liberty Enlightening the World” (a.k.a. the Statute of Liberty), he had a career that spanned decades both in his home country and in the U.S.  After being trained in multiple disciplines in Paris he established himself as a preeminent patriotic monument sculptor, the majority of his work is in his hometown region of Alsace.  Additional work this side of the Atlantic includes a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in Union Square, New York City and the Bartholdi Fountain at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.  But without a doubt, it is the Statue of Liberty; the new Colossus will remain his most notable commission.  Bartholdi’s knack for self-promotion was employed by gaining a patent in the U.S. for the design and reproduction of the statue in miniature.  The proceeds of the sales of these souvenirs before there was an attraction, “pre-venirs” if you will, raised the funding needed to see the statue come to life.  This tactic has been also been used by another notable French duo, Christo and Jeanne-Claude.  It is rumored that Lady Liberty’s face is modeled after his mother and the body after his wife, a subject it could be imagined would make for uncomfortable dinner table conversations at the Bartholdi residence. 

One of the New York Five who sought to elaborate on the Corbusian vision of modernism, Charles Gwathmey extensive career may be most notable for his addition to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim in New York City.  Some have described it as the tank to Wright’s toilet bowl but it is in reality a perfect example of elegant high modern simplicity and was inspired by an original rendering by Wright.  The addition seamlessly integrates into the urban landscape

without detracting from the original structure; a method of design that lead him to become the president of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies.  In addition to this and numerous public buildings including the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Gwathmey and his firm were sought after by many wealthy clients for private residences.  These works were so successful that many became repeat customers.   

Links:
The Joe Colombo Studio website
The Tube Chair at the Design Museum, London
Joe Colombo pieces at MoMA, New York City
The Statue of Liberty webpage at the National Park Service 
"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
Make your own Statue of Liberty souvenir!
Bartholdi Park at the United States Botanic Garded, Washington, D.C.
Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates website
The Guggenheim Museum, New York City
The Institute for Architecture & Urban Studies website
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
Charles Gwathmey's obituary in the New York Times