about

The Object of the Week blog is written by Cooper Hewitt’s curators, graduate fellows, and contributing researchers and scholars. Posts are published every week and present research on an object from the museum’s collection. With over 210,000 objects spanning thirty centuries of decorative arts and design, Object of the Week explores the material culture of textiles, graphic design, furniture, products, architectural drawings, wallcoverings, and much more.

Image features bright red text set against a lime green background. The text is manipulated so that the letters join into a single swirling form evocative of smoke or flame.
Remembering Wes Wilson (1937–2020)
Designer Wes Wilson, who died on January 24, 2020, at age 82, created some of the most memorable posters of the psychedelic era. These wavy-gravy, acid-colored, hand-lettered provocations for the eye accompanied rock shows at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom. Wilson’s posters for the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Association, and other bands...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Ellen Lupton
Date
January 31, 2020
Image features a richly hued wallpaper depicting a vividly colored peacock perched in a cedar tree, amidst purple lilac and yellow wisteria blossoms, all on a black background. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object
As Pretty as a Peacock, indeed
This is one of the most gorgeous and dramatic wallpapers produced during the early twentieth century. The design shows a brilliantly colored peacock perched in a cedar tree, with copious blossoms of lilac and wisteria in yellow and lavender. All of the printed colors pop against the black ground. And note the size of the...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Gregory Herringshaw
Date
January 30, 2020
Image features a broad-rimmed circular bowl on a tall base of assembled oval and globular glass forms of opaque or translucent blue, purple, white, and red. The bowl and base decorated with transparent rectangular panels, one blue and one green, and a wavy opaque red glass rod, all hung from brass hooks. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Serious Case of PoMo…
The bubble-like contours and dangling pieces of glass of this bowl are cartoonish and playful. The Efira Bowl was designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1986 for the important collective, Memphis, which he had founded five years earlier.[1] The bowl is a wonderful example of the objects produced by Memphis, which have been held up as...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Devon Zimmerman
Date
January 29, 2020
Image features wallpaper showing a seated female figure holding a cupid-like figure, amidst swags and multicolored floral decoration on a blue ground. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Balancing Nature, and Cupid, too
This is an arabesque wallpaper design from the late eighteenth century, containing two alternating views. The top view shows a woman, possibly Venus, within an arbor seated on a cross frame stool, playfully bouncing a putto, perhaps Cupid, on her foot. A tall urn sits behind her. A tree grows off to the left, towering...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Gregory Herringshaw
Date
January 28, 2020
Image features a charcoal and white gouache drawing showing an open market in a city square with canvas awnings strung over the stalls. A male figure is seated before an easel in the foreground. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Hop Smith in Venice
Writer and illustrator Francis Hopkinson Smith did not publish his first work until he was almost 50 years old.  Trained as an engineer, he spent the first part of his career in construction and is credited with designing the foundation for the Statue of Liberty. He made charcoal drawings and watercolors throughout his life and...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Laura Fravel
Date
January 27, 2020
Image features: Length of heavy off-white cotton printed with a dense pattern of wedges and dots in light blue with dark shading. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this image.
Chips
In the aftermath of World War II, a number of textile producers attempted to revitalize the industry by enlisting recognized personalities in art and architecture to design screen prints. “Perhaps the most outstanding name collection is Stimulus Fabrics produced by Schiffer Prints,” Alvin Lustig wrote in American Fabrics Magazine in 1951. “There was not a...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Susan Brown
Date
January 24, 2020
Image features two circular bowls, one smaller than the other, made of translucent aqua-toned glass, their surfaces showing the textures and irregularities of the stone molds used to shape them. Please scroll down to read the blog post about these objects.
Glass Shaped in Volcanic Stone
Innovative designer, Emilio Godoy, first came to the museum’s attention for his concerns about environmental sustainability, materials, and efficiency in production. His Pablo and Pedro glass project emerged from “the analysis of the energy used in glass manufacturing, in particular, the energy and resources needed for the fabrication of metal molds” used to form glass...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Cynthia Trope
Date
January 23, 2020
Image shows one scene from a border illustrating Christopher Robin's discovery of the North Pole. Please scroll down for additional information on this object.
Winnie the Pooh
This post was originally published January 18, 2013 and is being reposted in a belated commemoration of A.A. Milne’s birthday and the creation of this wonderful story and its beloved characters. This children’s frieze captures the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin. This is a woodblock print and was produced within a year...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Gregory Herringshaw
Date
January 22, 2020
Image features an etching in black ink on white paper, showing an opulent bed with sumptuous hangings in an ornate room. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Bed for a King
This post was originally published on October 9th, 2014. An opulent bed, almost completely dominated by its hangings, pushes at the edges of the border in this etching by the French designer and architect, Daniel Marot. This design is for a state bed (lit d’apparat), a bed that was purely ceremonial rather than functional, and...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Cabelle Ahn
Date
January 21, 2020