Indianapolis Museum of Art's new Contemporary Design galleries
The Indianapolis Museum of Art has announced that it will open new contemporary design galleries November 21, 2013, after a three-year, multi-phase renovation project. The reinstallation of the Museum’s expanded collection of modern design will span nearly 10,000 square feet and will feature more than 400 objects. Unlike most design installations, the IMA’s will focus on design after 1980—a period of immense growth and creativity. The galleries will be based on the two overarching concepts: design as industry and design as art. The new installation will be one of the largest displays of contemporary design in any North American art museum and one of the first surveys of recent trends in this dynamic field.
The IMA's Department of Design Art was created in 2007 and focuses on a collection of post-1945 design, representing a wide range of media, including furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, and product design from Europe, the US, and Asia. Over the last six years under the leadership of R. Craig Miller, senior curator of design arts, the department has acquired more than 1200 objects. Notable designers in the collection include Charles & Ray Eames, Hans Wegner, Eero Saarinen, Ettore Sottsass, Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, Jasper Morrison, Hella Jongerius, the Bouroullec Brothers, and Konstantin Grcic.
The new IMA's design arts galleries will feature a tripartite space linked by a dramatic 180-foot-long vista.
- The entrance gallery will be an introductory space that will showcase recent acquisitions or small special exhibitions and will also provide visitors with an orientation of the entire installation.
- The second, transitional gallery will concisely illustrate the history of modern design from 1945 to 1980 using highlights from the IMA’s collection. Through the display of a wide range of works, from Modernist chairs designed by Charles and Ray Eames to a Postmodernist sculptural piece in the shape of a foot by Gaetano Pesce, this gallery’s installation will demonstrate the enormous changes in design technologies and materials that took place in the decades following World War II. As the demand for modern furnishings rose, designers responded by utilizing emerging technologies and new materials such as plastics and polyurethane to create enticing and innovative forms.
- The main gallery, consisting of approximately 9,000 square feet, will present the Museum’s collection of contemporary design from 1980 to the present. An important goal of the new installation is to present modern design in an innovative conceptual and visual manner. The new galleries will allow the visitor to experience the evolution of contemporary design stylistically or chronologically depending on how the visitor chooses to move through the gallery. The layout will juxtapose three larger stylistic movements —Modernism, Expressionism, and Postmodernism— against three generations of designers representing the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The installation will also feature an architectural treatment of space employing a matrix of articulated bays defined by a coffered ceiling, free-standing walls, floating platforms, and dramatic cantilevered wall cases. The gallery will present masterpieces by established designers such as Ettore Sottsass, Frank Gehry, and Achille Castiglioni, alongside objects by emerging artists such as Tord Boontje, Konstantin Grcic, and the Bouroullec brothers. The installation will demonstrate for visitors the complexity of ideas and the variety of movements that have characterized this contemporary era of design. The new galleries are designed by Phil Lynam and Lara Huchteman of the IMA’s Design Studio, in association with Jeff Daly, formerly Senior Design Advisor to the Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART - IMA
