exploreing the evolution of colors in design, the role of color in the natural world, and the inspiration designers have long drawn from nature.
Author: Virginia Pollock The founding of Pennsylvania and the formation of William Penn’s “greene country towne” of Philadelphia is immortalized in this textile, intended for use as a furnishing fabric. Whereas today Penn’s dealings might be seen as part of a larger narrative of harmful and exploitative colonization, the printed images seek to convey Penn...
Walter Dorwin Teague was a well-established industrial designer by 1928, when the Eastman Kodak Company, engaged him to modernize their line of cameras. Kodak sought Teague based on recommendations by curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having no prior experience in camera design, Teague undertook the assignment after Kodak agreed that he could spend...
I recently had the opportunity to look at the museum’s collection of curtain papers, a lesser known group in the Wallcoverings department. A visiting paper conservator from the UK’s National Trust was researching curtain papers and while in New York on a courier trip stopped by to see Cooper Hewitt’s examples. Not much is known...
An influential painter, writer, and teacher, Kenyon Cox was perhaps best known for his murals that decorate state capitols and courthouses across the United States. The collection at Cooper Hewitt includes hundreds of his drawings, including six sketchbooks from his time as an art student—first in Ohio and then traveling to Paris—offering valuable insights...
Author: Cara McCarty, Director of Curatorial Playful, humorous, poetic, and humble are not words typically associated with lighting design. It is considered a serious discipline. But the work of the prolific German lighting designer Ingo Maurer, who sadly passed this week, is just that. His endless fascination with the “magical and mystical” qualities of light...
Since 2006, Hella Jongerius has been working with Swiss furniture producer Vitra, conducting an intensive study of the colors and textures of the materials used in the company’s products, from textiles and leathers to plastics and woods. Her research was intended to help the company’s designers and clients make the best possible use of color...
Probably best known for his one-piece injection-molded plastic design, the Panton ‘S’ chair of 1960, designer Verner Panton was sketching ideas for one-piece, self-supporting, cantilevered stackable chairs made of a single material as early as 1955. Panton’s 275 S chair is the first one-piece cantilevered chair made of molded plywood. It was among his entries in the 1956...
Digital Collection Intern Nicolai Garcia recounts the experience of producing x-ray images of electronic objects from Cooper Hewitt's collection.
This wallpaper honoring Major General Nathanael Greene is designed in the arabesque style, a format very popular in France at the end of the eighteenth century. Inspired by the mosaics and painted murals discovered at the recently unearthed Herculaneum and Pompeii, the designs are delicately balanced along a central axis. General Greene, spelled Green on...
Mark Chambers Honored with Director’s Award at 20th National Design Awards Gala New Climate Action Award Announced for 2020 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum held its 20th annual National Design Awards Gala in New York City last evening, honoring design excellence and innovation in 12 categories. The Director’s Award, which was revealed live, was presented...
In celebration of the milestone 20th anniversary of the National Design Awards, this week’s Object of The Day posts honor National Design Award winners. Completed in 2013, Monk’s Garden is a small garden on the grounds of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates took their inspiration for the garden’s...
In celebration of the milestone 20th anniversary of the National Design Awards, this week’s Object of The Day posts honor National Design Award winners. In 1959 Louis Kahn was commissioned to design a new building for the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York. The congregation had met for many years in a building of...
In celebration of the milestone 20th anniversary of the National Design Awards, this week’s Object of The Day posts honor National Design Award winners. A version of this post was originally published on October 1, 2014. Throughout the history of photography, advances in technology—from daguerreotype to digital photography—have continued to propel the field forward. Recently, the...
For decades, artificial intelligence has held a prominent position in our collective imagination, powering future visions ranging from transhumanist utopia to dystopian depictions of a world run by machines. As such, exploring, critiquing, and understanding the ethical implications of AI within a museum context is becoming a pressing need. In an evening co-hosted by The...
